Memory Lane
by Cosmowriter
Summary: A Trip down Memory Lane for the gang, but who are the five other people with them? They're listening to their future, thats what they're doing. But why exactly are they there? Rated T for now.
1. Prolog

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments or The Infernal Devices.**

_Author's Note: Okay, so I _haven't_ read City of Heavenly Fire. Though, I know some things as when I am shopping I find the book and read through some. I so pour. __ and I haven't read book 4 and 5 but I have read detailed summaries of them. I haven't read them, because I am so pour I had to stop buying a lot of want things, and books were under the wanted and not needed list. However, I have gone to the library, recently (As in a day ago) and actually found the books [except CoHF b/c it's not there yet.] _

_I also have the Infernal Devices book, I've almost finished the first; Clockwork Angel, I think I have about 4 more chapters and I am done. So please no information is given to me, unless I say something that didn't happen or a 'fact' is wrong, message me and _politely_ correct me so I can correct it myself. _

_P.S: Some of it IS made up… cause I felt like it. _

_P.S.S. I also don't know if Alec and Magnus got back together and I don't care if they hadn't, they had here. _

_Chapter 1- Find Out Where I am_

It has been five years, five years since Johnathon, my brother's war. Everything has slowly gone back to the way things were in the Shadowhunter world. While Simon and I got used to being in this new world, even further. Simon was sent straight to training, because he was practically useless without it, and my training got harder. It did not take long for either of us to catch up to the point where Alec, Izzy, and Jace were. We had practiced non-stop get there, though.

Two years after the war, Jace had proposed to me. It was cute, and I could not say no. It was at my half-brothers birthing. Apparently Luke and Mom still could have children, not that they were old or anything. I just, was not expecting another member to be added. Anyways, Luke had given Jace Gabriel. And when Jace turned away he was holding Gabriel towards me with a note pinned to his baby onesie. The note "Sister, Marry Jace will you?" Though I was confused, I saw Jace kneel with Gabe still in his arms holding out a ring. This time him questioning me if I'll marry him.

I said yes, wanting to jump in his arms, but since he was holding my just born baby brother, I could not. Everyone was happy for us, and later I had found out it took him a lot of sucking up to my parents to get him to 'use' Gabe to help him purpose. Gabe was _almost_ a perfect mix of mom and dad. The only thing I could see that came from Luke to Gabe with the eye color, everything else was mom. However, on multiple occasions, I can hear him and mom commenting what was his, and what was hers.

A year later, Izzy and Simon married. Then no more than three weeks after they married, they found out they were pregnant. With a girl Robin Lewis, I was not going to ask where they got that name. However, when she was born, I could tell she was going to be beautiful. She had Izzy's hair color. With a mixture of Simon and Izzy's brown eye color. She was also the most spoiled.

This was around the same time, Alec and Magnus adopted a little Shadowhunter boy. The boy's parents had died in a demon attack, and was no older than three. I guess they did not care what the child looked like, but I know it was a plus the boy looked like Alec. Black hair and blue eyes, I know Magnus liked it. They let the boy keep the name his birth parents gave him, but changed his last name to Lightwood. Joshua Lightwood was the next newest family member.

With all these babies around, I started to want one. And told Jace, just as much. And he was up for it. However, apparently, that had proven to be problematic. We were trying; I stopped my birth control and anything that we had bought to prevent us having children too early. We just had not got pregnant, by the end of the first year of trying. I started to worry. Worry that I could not get pregnant that something was seriously wrong. Jace had told me not to worry, that it will happen when it will happen.

And true to his words, I had finally became pregnant. Which was where I time was now, the five-year later mark, 5 months pregnant. However, what I had been waking up too since marring Jace was not what I woke up to this morning. What I usually woke up to was a white covered walls and blankets with my artwork displayed everywhere and little colored pillows. But not now. Now I woke up to brown everywhere. Turning over I did not see Jace.

Panicking, I got up and left the room, surprised when the door was not locked. Hearing voices down the hall, I followed. Almost every male, I saw, was in attack mode. I immediately jumped in the middle. Every male, I knew looked alarmed.

"Clary!" Jace began. I gave him a glare and turned to the three men, dressed funny and the unknown ones. Simon, Luke, Alec, and Jace were the others.

"You wouldn't attack a pregnant woman would you?" They all looked me up and down and released their fighting positions.

"Now, who are you?" I could tell they were Shadowhunters, due to the markings all over their bodies.

The man with Red hair and Hazel eyes stood tall, towering over me at almost Jace's height. However, I can tell he was not use to taking charge as he glanced back at the other two men. Who were checking out the men behind me as if they were the enemy. "I'm Henry Branwell, Second Head of the London Institute."

He turned his body slightly, pointing to the man with Silver hair and eyes. "That's James Carstiars, but call him Jem." Jem looked over at his name, stepping a little closer to me, I finally noticed the cane he was holding on it. He looked pale, almost too pale.

"Nice to me you." He bowed at little, and the other man behind me chuckled. Jem spoke up, smiling slightly at the blue eyed, black hair man.

"That's William Herondale, but he rather you call him Will, my Parabatai." Will smirked at me, I guess expecting me to swoon at the sight. I could diffidently see where Jace was related to him, as Jace expects the same from women.

"Hello Henry, Jem, and Will. I am Clarissa Herondale." I gave Will a pointed look, almost smirking back at him, when he looked slightly confused. "But call me Clary."

I reached for Jace's hand bringing him close to me. "This is Jonathon Herondale. My husband, but call him Jace."

I looked around Jace to Luke, pointing to him. "My father, Luke Garroway."

Then the same to Simon. "Simon Lewis, brother in law and best friend."

"Alexander Lightwood, call him Alec. He is my other brother-in-law and Jace's Parabatai."

At this moment, Magnus walked in holding Joshua. When Joshua saw Alec, he practically jumped down off Magnus and yelled Daddy, while jumping on him. Alec smiled down at Joshua, letting Magnus kiss his cheek. The three men were silent staring at the scene before them. Magnus finally seemed to notice we had three different men in the room.

"Jem, Will, Henry. Nice seeing you, didn't notice you." He looked around the room. "Having a family reunion?"

We looked confused at him. Luke spoke up for us. "What are you talking about Magnus?"

"Oh, Well I think you noticed that Will is Jace's something-Great grandfather and Alec's something-great distant Uncle. And Henry's Clary's something-Grandfather." We were all silent; I knew Jace knew that Will was. However, Henry and me? Then, Will and Alec? No.

"Aw, great. My offspring will marry something that came from him." Will said, looking worried. Henry turned and gave Will an amused look.

"At least, someone in your family will be smart." Will scowl at him and Jem, when Jem chuckled.

At this moment, Gabriel and mom walked in. Gabe seeming to drag mom behind him. When he saw Luke he smiled, but stopped dead when he saw the other unknown people in the room.

"Luke? Clary? Who are these people?" She took a protective stand beside Gabe. However, I am sure that only Luke and I noticed.

"Apparently, mom. They're Shadowhunters from a long ago." I told her. Luke walked over to her and whispered something to her ear. She nods and walks next to me, seeming to study Henry.

"At least I know how far back the red hair goes." She finally said after a moment of silence. Everyone chuckled. I smiled at my mom. Luke now had Gabe, but they soon disappeared into another room.

"Now, can we go to another room, and wait for everyone else to show up?" Magnus questioned. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Everyone else?"

"Yes, I looked in all the other rooms; we have more people, mainly the women and another child." I nod, in understanding.

"Well, I am hungry. Is there a place where I can eat?" Jace, Simon, Alec, and Magnus chuckled why the other men smiled at me.

"In here Clary!" Luke yelled from the other room, dropping Jace's hand I walked to the food. Soon, everyone followed me. I sat down next to Gabe, and looked around the kitchen. It had everything a kitchen should have in it. Jace sat down next to me throwing an arm around my shoulder and kissing my cheek. Mom and Luke made breakfast for everyone. While we also waited for everyone else to show up, and then explained to each one whom we were.

Henry's wife showed up, along with apparently Will's wife, Tessa. Though we all knew who Tessa was, none of us pointed out that she was now married to Brother Zachariah, Jem. In addition, known as a Carstiars. Letting me know, that Will and Jace were related even further. Will, was just like Jace. He flirted around but was a one-woman man, by the end of the day.

Then finally yet importantly, Izzy and Robin showed. Looking 'fashionable,' Izzy had on a fitting dress with thigh-high boots, while Robin and tights ankle boots and a black tank top with her hair pulled up in a ponytail. Simon smiled widely at them, and took Robin to sit in his lap.

None of us had a clue why we were here. However when a beeping would not stop from the other room we started in we all walked back. Jem walked over to the middle, where a box on the table was. I did not realize when I first came into the room, but this must have been like a living room, enough chairs were in here for everyone. Jace followed him, standing next to him. Picking up the paper on it.

"It says Clary on it." He handed it to me, standing next to me while I read it aloud, knowing that if I had read it to myself they will want to read it anyways.

"_Dear Clarissa Fray Fairchild Morgenstern Herondale,"_

Izzy decided to interrupt. "Why put your past names?"

Magnus spoke, coming to stand on the other side of me. "Maybe to show that they know her, and that she should listen?" It came out as a question, though. He shrugged, and looked up to me. I went back to reading.

"_I hope you have met everyone, and everyone has an understanding of who is related to whom. And if you do, I'll have to thank Magnus. Anyhow. Clary in this box there are six books. All six books are mainly in your point of view. Read them. This will be a trip down memory lane for you, but this is to let everyone else know what you were thinking during the time period. And maybe this is a warning to your past family members. The order of the books are placed in the order stacked. _

_Yours truly, _

_Jessie."_

Jem opened the box, handing the book on top to me.

"City of Bones." I looked around the room, then back at the book. "Jace you're on the cover."

"How do you know?" Jem said, eyeing the book.

"I think I know what my husband chest looks like, Jem." Jace began to open his mouth, knowing it was something that would cause me to blush. I finished with. "Plus he is the only one with blonde hair." Jem said nothing to this; I flipped the book over to read the back.

**When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. **

"They were only bizarre because you didn't know what they were." Jace smirked at me. I rolled my eyes at him.

**Clary knows she should call the police, but it's hard to explain a murder when the body disappears into thin air and the murderers are invisible to everyone but Clary. **

**Equally startled by her ability to see them, the murderers explain themselves as Shadowhunters: a secret tribe of warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. Within twenty-four hours, Clary's mother disappears and Clary herself is almost killed by a grotesque demon. **

**But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…**

"And we sure found out." Simon said shaking his head.

"And it unloaded all this shit." Izzy said, nod her head in agreement along with everyone else. The people of the past looked confused. We did not bother to explain because if we read all the books they would shortly understand.

Looking around the room, everyone started to find chairs to sit in. Magnus, Alec, and Joshua to one with Joshua in-between them, but using their legs as a chair. Mom, Dad, and Gabe to another. Izzy, Simon, and Robin picked the seat next to Alec and Magnus. Jace and I were next to them, with the other side of Mom and Dad. Tessa and Will sat together, with Jem in the chair beside Tessa. Charlotte and Henry beside her to finish off the seating.

I had the book, but that did not mean I wanted to read it first.

"Who wants to read?"

Jace took the book from me, and cracked it opened to the first page.


	2. Reading Prt 1, Ch 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own TMI or TDI. **

_Chapter 2- Reading Part 1, Chapter 1_

**Part 1 DARK DESCENT**

Apparently there are parts in the book, how many? I have no idea. But I hope it is not a lot.

**I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,**

**Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down**

**The dark descent, and up to reascend …**

—**John Milton, Paradise Lost**

"So it started off with a quote?" Izzy questioned, with an eyebrow raised. Jace nods to her, while she began to read again.

**Chapter 1 PANDEMONIUM**

"**You've got to be kidding me," The bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest. He stared down at the boy in the red zip-up jacket and shook his shaved head. "You can't bring that thing in here."**

"Ugh!" I said, throwing my head back, As Simon said. "It starts there?"

"Starts where?" Alec decided to question.

"It's the night I met yI mumbled, Jace smirked and read before anyone else could comment.

**The fifty or so teenagers in line outside the Pandemonium Club leaned forward to eavesdrop. It was a long wait to get into the all-ages club, especially on a Sunday, and not much generally happened in line. The bouncers were fierce and would come down instantly on anyone who looked like they were going to start trouble. Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray, standing in line with her best friend, Simon, leaned forward along with everyone else, hoping for some excitement.**

"**Aw, come on." The kid hoisted the thing up over his head. It looked like a wooden beam, pointed at one end. "It's part of my costume."**

**The bouncer raised an eyebrow. "Which is what?"**

**The boy grinned. He was normal-enough-looking, Clary thought, for Pandemonium. He had electric-blue dyed hair that stuck up around his head like the tendrils of a startled octopus, but no elaborate facial tattoos or big metal bars through his ears or lips. "I'm a vampire hunter." He pushed down on the wooden thing. It bent as easily as a blade of grass bending sideways. "It's fake. Foam rubber. See?"**

"How was he able to do that, anyways?" I questioned, looking around the room.

"Clary, Babe. He was a _demon_. He can let anyone believe anything." Jace said, not looking up from the book. I rolled my eyes, though he couldn't see.

**The boy's wide eyes were way too bright a green, Clary noticed: the color of antifreeze, spring grass. Colored contact lenses, probably. The bouncer shrugged, abruptly bored. "Whatever. Go on in."**

**The boy slid past him, quick as an eel. Clary liked the lilt to his shoulders, the way he tossed his hair as he went. There was a word for him that her mother would have used—insouciant.**

"**You thought he was cute," said Simon, sounding resigned. "Didn't you?"**

Jace turned and raised an eyebrow at me, silently questioning the same. When I pretended not to notice, he questioned it aloud.

"She did." Simon said, before I could mumble out the word, 'No.'

"Well, that explains why she fell in love with Jace." The group started to laugh, as Jace flipped them off, only reading when they calmed down.

**Clary dug her elbow into his ribs, but didn't answer.**

**Inside, the club was full of dry-ice smoke. Colored lights played over the dance floor, turning it into a multicolored fairyland of blues and acid greens, hot pinks and golds.**

**The boy in the red jacket stroked the long razor-sharp blade in his hands, an idle smile playing over his lips. It had been so easy—a little bit of a glamour on the blade, to make it look harmless. Another glamour on his eyes, and the moment the bouncer had looked straight at him, he was in. Of course, he could probably have gotten by without all that trouble, but it was part of the fun—fooling the mundies, doing it all out in the open right in front of them, getting off on the blank looks on their sheeplike faces.**

"So, is this what Jessie, means when she said mostly in Clary's point of view?" Jocelyn questioned. "Because now it sounds like the Demon's point of view."

Nobody had an answer to that.

**Not that the humans didn't have their uses. The boy's green eyes scanned the dance floor, where slender limbs clad in scraps of silk and black leather appeared and disappeared inside the revolving columns of smoke as the mundies danced. Girls tossed their long hair, boys swung their leather-clad hips, and bare skin glittered with sweat. Vitality just poured off them, waves of energy that filled him with a drunken dizziness. His lip curled. They didn't know how lucky they were. They didn't know what it was like to eke out life in a dead world, where the sun hung limp in the sky like a burned cinder. Their lives burned as brightly as candle flames—and were as easy to snuff out.**

**His hand tightened on the blade he carried, and he had begun to step out onto the dance floor, when a girl broke away from the mass of dancers and began walking toward him. He stared at her. She was beautiful, for a human—long hair nearly the precise color of black ink, charcoaled eyes. Floor-length white gown, the kind women used to wear when this world was younger. Lace sleeves belled out around her slim arms. Around her neck was a thick silver chain, on which hung a dark red pendant the size of a baby's fist. He only had to narrow his eyes to know that it was real—real and precious. **

"Hey, look. It's me!" Izzy exclaimed, happily.

"Are you happy that a demon finds your attractive?" Simon questioned, with an eyebrow raised. She nods her head.

"Yes, cause that means my job as the bate, works!" This causes Simon to roll his eyes.

"You do realize, that Clary will begin that job with you, again, when she has the baby, right?" A now sad Izzy nods her head.

"It'll be fun while it last."

I snorted, crossing my arms over my chest. "They like you because you're beautiful. They like me and come to me quicker because I look innocent. I just… don't look as innocent with a pregnant belly." This causes Jace to chuckle and move to kiss my cheek.

"My point exactly." I heard Izzy mumble. I made a face at her, which caused everyone to chuckle.

**His mouth started to water as she neared him. Vital energy pulsed from her like blood from an open wound. She smiled, passing him, beckoning with her eyes. He turned to follow her, tasting the phantom sizzle of her death on his lips.**

**It was always easy. He could already feel the power of her evaporating life coursing through his veins like fire. Humans were so stupid. They had something so precious, and they barely safeguarded it at all. They threw away their lives for money, for packets of powder, for a stranger's charming smile. The girl was a pale ghost retreating through the colored smoke. She reached the wall and turned, bunching her skirt up in her hands, lifting it as she grinned at him. Under the skirt, she was wearing thigh-high boots.**

**He sauntered up to her, his skin prickling with her nearness. Up close she wasn't so perfect: He could see the mascara smudged under her eyes, the sweat sticking her hair to her neck. He could smell her mortality, the sweet rot of corruption. Got you, he thought.**

"Now, that is just discussing." Izzy moaned.

"I don't want to know, what I demon likes about me." I shivered, just thinking about it.

**A cool smile curled her lips. She moved to the side, and he could see that she was leaning against a closed door. NO ADMITTANCE—STORAGE was scrawled across it in red paint. She reached behind her for the knob, turned it, slid inside. He caught a glimpse of stacked boxes, tangled wiring. A storage room. He glanced behind him—no one was looking. So much the better if she wanted privacy.**

**He slipped into the room after her, unaware that he was being followed.**

"Wait, so you're hunting?" Henry questioned, while we all nodded.

"What an unusual way to go hunting." He mumbled as Charlotte seem to have a plan form in her head.

"**So," Simon said, "pretty good music, eh?"**

**Clary didn't reply. They were dancing, or what passed for it—a lot of swaying back and forth with occasional lunges toward the floor as if one of them had dropped a contact lens—in a space between a group of teenage boys in metallic corsets, and a young Asian couple who were making out passionately, their colored hair extensions tangled together like vines. A boy with a lip piercing and a teddy bear backpack was handing out free tablets of herbal ecstasy, his parachute pants flapping in the breeze from the wind machine. Clary wasn't paying much attention to their immediate surroundings—her eyes were on the blue-haired boy who'd talked his way into the club. He was prowling through the crowd as if he were looking for something. There was something about the way he moved that reminded her of something …**

"A demon, perhaps Clary?" Jace questioned book me. I rolled my eyes at him and nudged him with my elbow.

"What, oh? Sorry."

"**I, for one," Simon went on, "am enjoying myself immensely."**

**This seemed unlikely. Simon, as always, stuck out at the club like a sore thumb, in jeans and an old T-shirt that said MADE IN BROOKLYN across the front. His freshly scrubbed hair was dark brown instead of green or pink, and his glasses perched crookedly on the end of his nose. He looked less as if he were contemplating the powers of darkness and more as if he were on his way to chess club.**

"HEY!" Simon exclaimed. Izzy seemed to calm him down, though, with.

"I love nerds. So it's okay." I giggled at how Simon smiled at Izzy and then down at Robin. Robin, who apparently found sleeping more important. She was leaning up against Simon, using him as a pillow.

"**Mmm-hmm." Clary knew perfectly well that he came to Pandemonium with her only because she liked it, that he thought it was boring. She wasn't even sure why it was that she liked it—the clothes, the music, made it like a dream, someone else's life, not her boring real life at all. But she was always too shy to talk to anyone but Simon.**

"Maybe it was because you can never get rid of who you were born. You unconsciously could feel the world you belonged in without seeing it." Magnus told me, while he bounced Josh on his knee. Which seemed to entertain the young boy.

**The blue-haired boy was making his way off the dance floor. He looked a little lost, as if he hadn't found whom he was looking for. Clary wondered what would happen if she went up and introduced herself, offered to show him around. Maybe he'd just stare at her. Or maybe he was shy too. Maybe he'd be grateful and pleased, and try not to show it, the way boys did—but she'd know. Maybe—**

**The blue-haired boy straightened up suddenly, snapping to attention, like a hunting dog on point. Clary followed the line of his gaze, and saw the girl in the white dress.**

**Oh, well, Clary thought, trying not to feel like a deflated party balloon. **

"HA! I knew you thought he was cute." Simon exclaimed, everyone just ignored him.

**I guess that's that. The girl was gorgeous, the kind of girl Clary would have liked to draw—tall and ribbon-slim, with a long spill of black hair. **

"Awe. Thank you, Clary. And I am pretty sure, you have already drew me. I still give you permission too." Izzy told me, I smiled and nod at her.

"You're an Artist?" Charlotte questioned. I smiled at her.

"Yes, along with mom." I inclined my head to her, Charlotte looked between us and smiled. Apparently liking that like fact.

**Even at this distance Clary could see the red pendant around her throat. It pulsed under the lights of the dance floor like a separate, disembodied heart.**

"**I feel," Simon went on, "that this evening DJ Bat is doing a singularly exceptional job. Don't you agree?"**

**Clary rolled her eyes and didn't answer; Simon hated trance music. Her attention was on the girl in the white dress. Through the darkness, smoke, and artificial fog, her pale dress shone out like a beacon. No wonder the blue-haired boy was following her as if he were under a spell, too distracted to notice anything else around him—even the two dark shapes hard on his heels, weaving after him through the crowd.**

**Clary slowed her dancing and stared. She could just make out that the shapes were boys, tall and wearing black clothes. She couldn't have said how she knew that they were following the other boy, but she did. She could see it in the way they paced him, their careful watchfulness, the slinking grace of their movements. **

Alec and Jace sighed at the same time, disappointed like. And gave each other a look, but Alec seemed to answer Jace's question.

"Well, we didn't know there was another Shadowhunter in the area, nor that anyone let alone her could have seen us."

"And it wasn't like, you thought you were going to be caught." I pointed out. Alec smiled slightly at me and nods.

**A small flower of apprehension began to open inside her chest.**

"**Meanwhile," Simon added, "I wanted to tell you that lately I've been cross-dressing. Also, I'm sleeping with your mom. I thought you should know."**

"Simon!" My mother exclaimed, while everyone in the room busted out laughing, even the past family. While Simon turned a bright red color.

"I was trying to get Clary's attention, Mrs. Garroway." With a few more chuckles, Jace calmed enough to read more.

**The girl had reached the wall, and was opening a door marked NO ADMITTANCE. She beckoned the blue-haired boy after her, and they slipped through the door. It wasn't anything Clary hadn't seen before, a couple sneaking off to the dark corners of the club to make out—but that made it even weirder that they were being followed.**

**She raised herself up on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowd. The two guys had stopped at the door and seemed to be conferring with each other. One of them was blond, the other dark-haired. The blond one reached into his jacket and drew out something long and sharp that flashed under the strobing lights. A knife. "Simon!" Clary shouted, and seized his arm.**

"**What?" Simon looked alarmed. "I'm not really sleeping with your mom, you know. I was just trying to get your attention. Not that your mom isn't a very attractive woman, for her age."**

Simon seemed to groan and throw his head back while more chuckles filled the room. Including Luke who was shaking his head with a smile on his face.

"**Do you see those guys?" She pointed wildly, almost hitting a curvy black girl who was dancing nearby. The girl shot her an evil look. "Sorry—sorry!" Clary turned back to Simon. "Do you see those two guys over there? By that door?"**

**Simon squinted, then shrugged. "I don't see anything."**

"**There are two of them. They were following the guy with the blue hair—"**

"**The one you thought was cute?"**

"**Yes, but that's not the point. The blond one pulled a knife."**

"**Are you sure?" Simon stared harder, shaking his head. "I still don't see anyone."**

"Clary that should have clued you in that you were either going crazy or that you were going crazy and shouldn't have followed us. You could've been hurt." Jace mumbled.

I hit the back side of his head, which caused him to wince. "Shut up, Jace." Was my only come back.

"**I'm sure."**

**Suddenly all business, Simon squared his shoulders. "I'll get one of the security guards. You stay here." He strode away, pushing through the crowd.**

"And stay you didn't." Simon told me, with an angry look.

"Did you just try to sound like Yoda?" I question, trying to stop myself from laughing. With a roll of his eyes, he told me.

"Point is, you didn't listen."

**Clary turned just in time to see the blond boy slip through the NO ADMITTANCE door, his friend right on his heels. She looked around; Simon was still trying to shove his way across the dance floor, but he wasn't making much progress. Even if she yelled now, no one would hear her, and by the time Simon got back, something terrible might already have happened. Biting hard on her lower lip, Clary started to wriggle through the crowd.**

"Now she is trying to be a hero." Will said, shaking his head. "If I am following correctly, you have no training at that point in time do you?"

I shook my head.

"If you enter that room, that's just another person to worry about. You can put them in danger." I flinched and tucked myself into Jace's side. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and gave Will and pointed look before he began to read again.

"**What's your name?"**

**She turned and smiled. What faint light there was in the storage room spilled down through high barred windows smeared with dirt. Piles of electrical cables, along with broken bits of mirrored disco balls and discarded paint cans, littered the floor.**

"**Isabelle."**

"**That's a nice name." He walked toward her, stepping carefully among the wires in case any of them were live. In the faint light she looked half-transparent, bleached of color, wrapped in white like an angel. It would be a pleasure to make her fall … "I haven't seen you here before."**

"**You're asking me if I come here often?" She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. There was some sort of bracelet around her wrist, just under the cuff of her dress—then, as he neared her, he saw that it wasn't a bracelet at all but a pattern inked into her skin, a matrix of swirling lines.**

I saw Izzy smirk with satisfaction out of the corner of my eye.

**He froze. "You—"**

**He didn't finish. She moved with lightning swiftness, striking out at him with her open hand, a blow to his chest that would have sent him down gasping if he'd been a human being. He staggered back, and now there was something in her hand, a coiling whip that glinted gold as she brought it down, curling around his ankles, jerking him off his feet. He hit the ground, writhing, the hated metal biting deep into his skin. **

Every male in the room seemed to smirk as well. Understanding, she got the demon trapped.

**She laughed, standing over him, and dizzily he thought that he should have known. No human girl would wear a dress like the one Isabelle wore. She'd worn it to cover her skin—all of her skin.**

**Isabelle yanked hard on the whip, securing it. Her smile glittered like poisonous water. "He's all yours, boys."**

**A low laugh sounded behind him, and now there were hands on him, hauling him upright, throwing him against one of the concrete pillars. He could feel the damp stone under his back. His hands were pulled behind him, his wrists bound with wire. As he struggled, someone walked around the side of the pillar into his view: a boy, as young as Isabelle and just as pretty. His tawny eyes glittered like chips of amber. **

"Hey, look there I am." Jace said annoyingly.

"Hey, look, he also thought you were pretty." Izzy smirked as Jace's scrunched up in distaste.

"**So," the boy said. "Are there any more with you?"**

**The blue-haired boy could feel blood welling up under the too-tight metal, making his wrists slippery. "Any other what?"**

"**Come on now." The tawny-eyed boy held up his hands, and his dark sleeves slipped down, showing the runes inked all over his wrists, the backs of his hands, his palms. "You know what I am."**

**Far back inside his skull, the shackled boy's second set of teeth began to grind.**

"**Shadowhunter," he hissed.**

**The other boy grinned all over his face. "Got you," he said.**

"What's happening?" Gabe questioned, looking confused.

"The demon is showing his true form, almost, Gabe." Still seeming a like confused, he just nods and sits back up against the chair, going back to playing with Luke's fingers.

**Clary pushed the door to the storage room open, and stepped inside. For a moment she thought it was deserted. The only windows were high up and barred; faint street noise came through them, the sound of honking cars and squealing brakes. The room smelled like old paint, and a heavy layer of dust covered the floor, marked by smeared shoe prints. **

**There's no one in here, she realized, looking around in bewilderment. It was cold in the room, despite the August heat outside. Her back was icy with sweat. She took a step forward, tangling her feet in electrical wires. She bent down to free her sneaker from the cables—and heard voices. A girl's laugh, a boy answering sharply. When she straightened up, she saw them.**

**It was as if they had sprung into existence between one blink of her eyes and the next. **

"The spell is still trying to wear off, which is why its happening that way. You are confusing on trying to find them, when they weren't there and you had. But the vision, that I blocked wasn't strong enough anymore. And the second time you were able to see them." Magnus told me, only glancing up slightly.

"Why is your vision blocked?" Henry questioned me, I turned to mom and dad to see if they can answer better than I could.

"It will probably be explained in the book. But, I was trying to hide from a Shadowhunter. In order to do that, I had to pretend to be a Mundane and I couldn't do that with a daughter with the sight. So, I paid Magnus to block it every once in a while."

Seeming satisfied, Henry nods.

**There was the girl in her long white dress, her black hair hanging down her back like damp seaweed. The two boys were with her—the tall one with black hair like hers, and the smaller, fair one, whose hair gleamed like brass in the dim light coming through the windows high above. **

"I am not that much s_maller _than Alec. Maybe in height, but everything else, no." Jace said with a shake of his head. Magnus smirked, thinking of the perfect come back, I knew before he even said it.

"Speak for yourself, because Alec is also bigger-"

"Okay!" I yelled, when Alec, and more importantly me, started to blush.

"I don't need to know that about Alec." Jace seemed to smirk, again.

"I'm afraid, Alec and I are the same size if you want to go there."

Alec groaned, blocking his face in his hands, mumbling something none of us heard.

The home gang look discussed, while the older away 'gang' look so confused.

"What are you talking about?" I mentally groaned. Jace seemed to be liking this, way too much, to stop.

"Well, what makes a man a man? His parts right? That's what we're talking about."

Will started to laugh, liking this, just as much. While the rest of them joined in on our discuss. Seeming tired of the joke, Jace began to finally read.

**The fair boy was standing with his hands in his pockets, facing the punk kid, who was tied to a pillar with what looked like piano wire, his hands stretched behind him, his legs bound at the ankles. His face was pulled tight with pain and fear.**

**Heart hammering in her chest, Clary ducked behind the nearest concrete pillar and peered around it. She watched as the fair-haired boy paced back and forth, his arms now crossed over his chest. "So," he said. "You still haven't told me if there are any other of your kind with you."**

**Your kind? Clary wondered what he was talking about. Maybe she'd stumbled into some kind of gang war.**

"If you're talking about Demons vs. Shadowhunters, then yes." Izzy said with a nod.

"**I don't know what you're talking about." The blue-haired boy's tone was pained but surly.**

"**He means other demons," said the dark-haired boy, speaking for the first time. "You do know what a demon is, don't you?"**

**The boy tied to the pillar turned his face away, his mouth working.**

"**Demons," drawled the blond boy, tracing the word on the air with his finger. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purposes of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension—"**

"Well, at least we know he is a descendant of Will's." Jem said, shaking his head. Will smirked at him.

"Yes, but Herondale's are awesome, and naturally good looking and we know it."

"Agreed." Jace nods along with Will. I wanted to hit both of them upside their heads.

"**That's enough, Jace," said the girl.**

"**Isabelle's right," agreed the taller boy. "Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics—or demonology."**

**They're crazy, Clary thought. Actually crazy.**

"Noooooo," Jace drawled. "You're the crazy one."

Scowling I moved away from him, he chuckled. "Oh come on, I was kidding."

I virgoursly shook my head at him. He sighed, but dropped it, continuing with the hellish book.

**Jace raised his head and smiled. There was something fierce about the gesture, something that reminded Clary of documentaries she'd watched about lions on the Discovery Channel, the way the big cats would raise their heads and sniff the air for prey. "Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much," he said, confidingly. "Do you think I talk too much?"**

"Yes!" Everyone yelled, followed by chuckles. Jace pouted, though I was mad and upset at him, I wanted to kiss it off his face. Reframing from it, I turned to look at something else, anything else before I kissed him.

**The blue-haired boy didn't reply. His mouth was still working. "I could give you information," he said. "I know where Valentine is."**

**Jace glanced back at Alec, who shrugged. "Valentine's in the ground," Jace said. "The thing's just toying with us."**

Jace, Alec, and Izzy sighed. "We should've listened."

"You kids, were told something and believed. That's not a crime." Luke commented, shaking his head.

**Isabelle tossed her hair. "Kill it, Jace," she said. "It's not going to tell us anything."**

**Jace raised his hand, and Clary saw dim light spark off the knife he was holding. It was oddly translucent, the blade clear as crystal, sharp as a shard of glass, the hilt set with red stones.**

**The bound boy gasped. "Valentine is back!" he protested, dragging at the bonds that held his hands behind his back. "All the Infernal Worlds know it—I know it—I can tell you where he is—"**

**Rage flared suddenly in Jace's icy eyes. "By the Angel, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Valentine is. Well, we know where he is too. He's in hell. And you—" Jace turned the knife in his grasp, the edge sparking like a line of fire. "You can join him there."**

I sighed, knowing what was to come. I was going to try to be heroic.

**Clary could take no more. She stepped out from behind the pillar. "Stop!" she cried. "You can't do this."**

**Jace whirled, so startled that the knife flew from his hand and clattered against the concrete floor. Isabelle and Alec turned along with him, wearing identical expressions of astonishment. **

"Of course, we weren't expecting you to be there." Izzy said, shaking her head.

"I should've kept better look out." I heard her mumble.

**The blue-haired boy hung in his bonds, stunned and gaping.**

**It was Alec who spoke first. "What's this?" he demanded, looking from Clary to his companions, as if they might know what she was doing there.**

"**It's a girl," Jace said, recovering his composure. "Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one." **

"Smart ass." Alec mumbled.

**He took a step closer to Clary, squinting as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "A mundie girl," he said, half to himself. "And she can see us."**

"**Of course I can see you," Clary said. "I'm not blind, you know."**

"**Oh, but you are," said Jace, bending to pick up his knife. "You just don't know it." He straightened up. "You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."**

"I _should've_ gone." I sighed. "But how I was supposed to know you were just doing your jobs? I didn't know you existed."

"No one blames you." Jace said, kissing my temple. I smiled at him, as he smiled back. Ruining the moment, Simon says.

"Hey, you want to read, because we don't want to see you making out." I noticed we were moving closer to each other, as if we were going to kiss each other.

Jace groans. "Fine."

"**I'm not going anywhere," Clary said. "If I do, you'll kill him." She pointed at the boy with the blue hair.**

"**That's true," admitted Jace, twirling the knife between his fingers. "What do you care if I kill him or not?"**

"**Be-because—" Clary spluttered. "You can't just go around killing people."**

"**You're right," said Jace. "You can't go around killing people." He pointed at the boy with blue hair, whose eyes were slitted. Clary wondered if he'd fainted. "That's not a person, little girl. It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person. But it's a monster."**

"**Jace," said Isabelle warningly. "That's enough."**

"Why are you telling her this, as far as you knew she was a mundane." My mother demanded.

"She was either a Mundane with the sight, or a Shadowhunter in hiding. Either way she needed to know the world wasn't as safe as she thought it was."

"She was perfectly safe-"

"With your ex-husband chasing after you? Yeah, look where that got us-"

"You two, stop this." I demanded. I turned to my mom. "No matter what he protected me, kept me alive you should be grateful." I then turned to Jace. "She is my mother, Jace. She has a right to demand answers that was going to possibly put me in danger and it did."

Jace opened his mouth, but instead shook his head. "You know what, I am not arguing with you."

"**You're crazy," Clary said, backing away from him. "I've called the police, you know. They'll be here any second."**

"**She's lying," said Alec, but there was doubt on his face. "Jace, do you—"**

**He never got to finish his sentence. At that moment the blue-haired boy, with a high, yowling cry, tore free of the restraints binding him to the pillar, and flung himself on Jace.**

**They fell to the ground and rolled together, the blue-haired boy tearing at Jace with hands that glittered as if tipped with metal. Clary backed up, wanting to run, but her feet caught on a loop of wiring and she went down, knocking the breath out of her chest. She could hear Isabelle shrieking. Rolling over, Clary saw the blue-haired boy sitting on Jace's chest. Blood gleamed at the tips of his razorlike claws.**

Will seem to whisper something, it almost sounded like. "I told you so." Tessa had fixed Will with a look, letting me know she heard him and didn't approve.

**Isabelle and Alec were running toward them, Isabelle brandishing the whip in her hand. The blue-haired boy slashed at Jace with claws extended. Jace threw an arm up to protect himself, and the claws raked it, splattering blood. The blue-haired boy lunged again—and Isabelle's whip came down across his back. He shrieked and fell to the side.**

**Swift as a flick of Isabelle's whip, Jace rolled over. There was a blade gleaming in his hand. He sank the knife into the blue-haired boy's chest. Blackish liquid exploded around the hilt. The boy arched off the floor, gurgling and twisting. With a grimace Jace stood up. His black shirt was blacker now in some places, wet with blood. He looked down at the twitching form at his feet, reached down, and yanked out the knife. The hilt was slick with black fluid.**

**The blue-haired boy's eyes flickered open. His eyes, fixed on Jace, seemed to burn. Between his teeth, he hissed, "So be it. The Forsaken will take you all."**

**Jace seemed to snarl. The boy's eyes rolled back. His body began to jerk and twitch as he crumpled, folding in on himself, growing smaller and smaller until he vanished entirely.**

**Clary scrambled to her feet, kicking free of the electrical wiring. She began to back away. **

"Well, someone's terrified." Magnus smirked at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Yes, Magnus I was extremely terrified. You think you're a mundane and go witness some psychos killing someone and then we'll talk." Magnus rolled his eyes.

**None of them were paying attention to her. Alec had reached Jace and was holding his arm, pulling at the sleeve, probably trying to get a good look at the wound. Clary turned to run—and found her way blocked by Isabelle, whip in hand. The gold length of it was stained with dark fluid. She flicked it toward Clary, and the end wrapped itself around her wrist and jerked tight. Clary gasped with pain and surprise.**

"Whoops, sorry." Izzy smiled apologetically at me. I smiled at her.

"It didn't leave marks, so were good."

"**Stupid little mundie," Isabelle said between her teeth. "You could have gotten Jace killed."**

"**He's crazy," Clary said, trying to pull her wrist back. The whip bit deeper into her skin. "You're all crazy. What do you think you are, vigilante killers? The police—"**

"**The police aren't usually interested unless you can produce a body," said Jace. Cradling his arm, he picked his way across the cable-strewn floor toward Clary. Alec followed behind him, face screwed into a scowl.**

**Clary glanced at the spot where the boy had disappeared from, and said nothing. There wasn't even a smear of blood there—nothing to show that the boy had ever existed.**

"**They return to their home dimensions when they die," said Jace. "In case you were wondering."**

Mom and Dad groaned in annoyance.

"**Jace," Alec hissed. "Be careful."**

**Jace drew his arm away. A ghoulish freckling of blood marked his face. He still reminded her of a lion, with his wide-spaced, light-colored eyes, and that tawny gold hair. "She can see us, Alec," he said. "She already knows too much."**

"He is right about that." Will nod in agreement.

"**So what do you want me to do with her?" Isabelle demanded.**

"**Let her go," Jace said quietly. Isabelle shot him a surprised, almost angry look, but didn't argue. The whip slithered away, freeing Clary's arm. She rubbed her sore wrist and wondered how the hell she was going to get out of there.**

"**Maybe we should bring her back with us," Alec said. "I bet Hodge would like to talk to her."**

"**No way are we bringing her to the Institute," said Isabelle. "She's a mundie."**

"**Or is she?" said Jace softly. His quiet tone was worse than Isabelle's snapping or Alec's anger. **

Jace paused, confused he looked up at me. "How is it worse?"

"**Have you had dealings with demons, little girl? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you—"**

"**My name is not 'little girl,'" Clary interrupted. "And I have no idea what you're talking about." Don't you? said a voice in the back of her head. You saw that boy vanish into thin air. Jace isn't crazy—you just wish he was. **

"Ah Ha! See, your mind agrees with me." He shook the book around some, to prove his point.

"Jace, babe. You're getting a little into this." He made a face, his eyebrows furrowed with his nose scrunched up. I'll admit, it was cute. Before I could say anything about his face, he shook out of it.

"**I don't believe in—in demons, or whatever you—"**

"**Clary?" It was Simon's voice. She whirled around. He was standing by the storage room door. One of the burly bouncers who'd been stamping hands at the front door was next to him. "Are you okay?" He peered at her through the gloom. "Why are you in here by yourself? What happened to the guys—you know, the ones with the knives?"**

**Clary stared at him, then looked behind her, where Jace, Isabelle, and Alec stood, Jace still in his bloody shirt with the knife in his hand. He grinned at her and dropped a half-apologetic, half-mocking shrug. **

Jace turned and did the same thing, I narrowed my eyes at him and huffed. "Meany." He chuckled, before he turn back to the book.

**Clearly he wasn't surprised that neither Simon nor the bouncer could see them.**

"If I may interrupt." Jem began, looking towards Simon. "You were a Mundane, right?"

Simon nods his head. "It's a long story, but now I am not." Jem looked him up and down for a moment, before he turned his attention back to Jace who began to read.

**Somehow neither was Clary. Slowly she turned back to Simon, knowing how she must look to him, standing alone in a damp storage room, her feet tangled in bright plastic wiring cables. "I thought they went in here," she said lamely. "But I guess they didn't. I'm sorry." She glanced from Simon, whose expression was changing from worried to embarrassed, to the bouncer, who just looked annoyed. "It was a mistake."**

**Behind her, Isabelle giggled.**

"**I don't believe it," Simon said stubbornly as Clary, standing at the curb, tried desperately to hail a cab. Street cleaners had come down Orchard while they were inside the club, and the street was glossed black with oily water.**

"**I know," she agreed. "You'd think there'd be some cabs. Where is everyone going at midnight on a Sunday?" She turned back to him, shrugging. "You think we'd have better luck on Houston?"**

"**Not the cabs," Simon said. "You—I don't believe you. I don't believe those guys with the knives just disappeared."**

"We didn't." Jace said smugly. Simon rolled his eyes, I see reaching for his belt. Most of us had our Shadowhunter gear on. Well, we never left the house without our belt of weapons. So I knew all of us had them.

Almost quickly, Simon took out one of his daggers and threw it at Jace. I yelped at the suddenness, as Jace glances down at his shoulder. Marking the page of the book, which had already little drops of blood on it, and shutting it. Sighing, he glanced up at Simon.

"Serious?" Simon smirked, as Jace rolled his eyes taking the dagger out of his shoulder. Not even flinching as he did so.

"Simon 5: Jace 5. We're even." Simon said smugly. Oh, that's right Jace and Simon have this 'war' going on about who can attack the other with their daggers the most without being caught. I grabbed my Steele that was strapped to my ankle, since I was barefoot. Jace cleaned off the dragger and tossed it back to Simon, then rolled up the front of his shirt for me to place a healing rune on him.

I looked at the other half of the group who didn't know of this 'war.' They all had their mouths open, as if shock. I would not blame them, you usually only threw weapons in the training room. As if nothing happened, Jace opened the book back up.

**Clary sighed. "Maybe there weren't any guys with knives, Simon. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing."**

"**No way." Simon raised his hand over his head, but the oncoming taxis whizzed by him, spraying dirty water. "I saw your face when I came into that storage room. You looked seriously freaked out, like you'd seen a ghost."**

**Clary thought of Jace with his lion-cat eyes. She glanced down at her wrist, braceleted by a thin red line where Isabelle's whip had curled. No, not a ghost, she thought. Something even weirder than that.**

"Yes, Clary." Izzy began. "We are weirder than that."

"**It was just a mistake," she said wearily. She wondered why she wasn't telling him the truth. Except, of course, that he'd think she was crazy. And there was something about what had happened—something about the black blood bubbling up around Jace's knife, something about his voice when he'd said Have you talked with the Night Children? that she wanted to keep to herself.**

"**Well, it was a hell of an embarrassing mistake," Simon said. He glanced back at the club, where a thin line still snaked out the door and halfway down the block. "I doubt they'll ever let us back into Pandemonium."**

"And yet, we go every weekend." I sighed.

"Correction, _we_ go every weekend. _You_ stay with Magnus babysitting." Jace told me. I rolled my eyes at him. "Just read."

"**What do you care? You hate Pandemonium." Clary raised her hand again as a yellow shape sped toward them through the fog. This time, though, the taxi screeched to a halt at their corner, the driver laying into his horn as if he needed to get their attention.**

"**Finally we get lucky." Simon yanked the taxi door open and slid onto the plastic-covered backseat. Clary followed, inhaling the familiar New York cab smell of old cigarette smoke, leather, and hair spray. "We're going to Brooklyn," Simon said to the cabbie, and then he turned to Clary. "Look, you know you can tell me anything, right?"**

**Clary hesitated a moment, then nodded. "Sure, Simon," she said. "I know I can."**

"Apparently, not." Simon said, his voice annoyed but with the smirk on his face I wasn't for sure.

"I eventually told you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, after you disappeared for 3 days."

**She slammed the cab door shut behind her, and the taxi took off into the night.**

"End of Chapter." Jace exclaimed, looking around the room. "Who's next?"


	3. Reading Prt 1, Ch 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Instruments. **

_Chapter 3- Reading Prt 1, Chapter 2_

"Chapter 2" Magnus said. Magnus was the one who had volunteer after everyone say in silence when Jace had questioned who was going to read next.

**Secrets and Lies**

**The dark prince sat astride his black steed, his stable cape flowing behind him. A golden circlet bound his blond locks, his handsome face was cold with the rage of battle, and…**

"And what?" Most of the group questioned, when Magnus actually waited for three seconds to continue reading.

"**And his arm looked like an eggplant," Clary muttered to herself in exasperation. The drawing just wasn't working. With a sigh she tore yet another sheet from her sketchpad, crumpled it up, and tossed it against the orange wall of her bedroom. Already the floor was littered with discarded balls of paper, a sure sign that her creative juices weren't flowing the way she'd hoped. She wished for the thousandth time that she could be a bit more like her mother. Everything Jocelyn Fray drew, painted, or sketched was beautiful, and seemingly effortless.**

"Years of practice, Hunny. Years of practice." Mom smiled at me. "And it doesn't matter, we all have our type of style. Your style is amazing all in itself."

I smiled at my mom, as Jace leaned over to kiss my temple, whispering in my ear that she was right. I smiled at him, kissing his cheek.

**Clary pulled her headphones out—cutting off Stepping Razor in midsong—and rubbed her aching temples. It was only then that she became aware that the loud, piercing sound of a ringing telephone was echoing through the apartment. Tossing the sketchpad onto the bed, she jumped to her feet and ran into the living room, where the retro-red phone sat on a table near the front door.**

"**Is this Clarissa Fray?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded familiar, though not immediately identifiable.**

**Clary twirled the phone cord nervously around her finger. "Yeees?"**

"**Hi, I'm one of the knife-carrying hooligans you met last night in Pandemonium? I'm afraid I made a bad impression and was hoping you'd give me a chance to make it up to—"**

"Jace!" Alec and Izzy yelled, looking appalled. While Simon and I shared a secrete smile.

"I didn't do anything." He claimed. Almost looking a little hurt that they thought he would actually do something so… stupid.

"**SIMON!" **

"See." Jace exclaimed while Alec and Izzy mumbled an 'O.'

**Clary held the phone away from her ear as he cracked up laughing. "That is so not funny!"**

"**Sure it is. You just don't see the humor."**

"**Jerk." Clary sighed, leaning up against the wall. "You wouldn't be laughing if you'd been here when I got home last night."**

"**Why not?"**

"**My mom. She wasn't happy that we were late. She freaked out. It was messy."**

"I didn't freak out." Mom tried to reason.

"You did." Dad and I claimed at the same time, before smiling at each other and turning back to my mom who was slightly pouting. Luke chuckled and kissed moms' hair, trying to tell her we mean no harm.

"**What? It's not our fault there was traffic!" Simon protested. He was the youngest of three children and had a finely honed sense of familial injustice.**

"**Yeah, well, she doesn't see it that way. I disappointed her, I let her down, I made her worry, blah blah blah. I am the bane of her existence," Clary said, mimicking her mother's precise phrasing with only a slight twinge of guilt.**

"**So, are you grounded?" Simon asked, a little too loudly. **

"You would've been." Mom said. "But then I got kidnapped." She ended with a sigh, as dad brought her closer to him. As if he was protecting her from the past.

**Clary could hear a low rumble of voices behind him: people talking over each other.**

"**I don't know yet," she said. "My mom went out this morning with Luke, and they're not back yet. Where are you, anyway? Eric's?"**

"**Yeah. We just finished up practice." A cymbal clashed behind Simon. Clary winced. "Eric's doing a poetry reading over at Java Jones tonight," Simon went on, naming a coffee shop around the corner from Clary's that sometimes had live music at night. "The whole band's going to go to show their support. Want to come?"**

"Nope." I smiled at Simon. Then to Jace who had said 'No,' at the same time. Jace chuckled,

"**Yeah, all right." Clary paused, tugging on the phone cord anxiously. "Wait, no."**

"**Shut up, guys, will you?" Simon yelled, the faintness of his voice making Clary suspect that he was holding the phone away from his mouth. He was back a second later, sounding troubled. "Was that a yes or a no?"**

"Defiantly Not." I mumbled, only Jace heard me though. Chuckling, he moved us around so I was in-between his legs on the couch. My head was on his chest, and he was rubbing my stomach and sides giving affection to our baby. I smiled up at him, before wiggling just a bit to get more comfortable.

"**I don't know." Clary bit her lip. "My mom's still mad at me about last night. I'm not sure I want to piss her off by asking for any favors. If I'm going to get in trouble, I don't want it to be on account of Eric's lousy poetry."**

"I'm with you there." Simon told me, shaking his head.

"**Come on, it's not so bad," Simon said. Eric was his next-door neighbor, and the two had known each other most of their lives. They weren't close the way Simon and Clary were, but they had formed a rock band together at the start of sophomore year, along with Eric's friends Matt and Kirk. They practiced together faithfully in Eric's parents' garage every week. "Besides, it's not a favor," Simon added, "it's a poetry slam around the block from your house. It's not like I'm inviting you to some orgy in Hoboken. Your mom can come along if she wants."**

"Eric's the boy that changes his hair color all the time, right?" She questioned. When we both nod, she shook her head.

"No, that boy is plain weird. Even for us, I do not think I want to know what he writes his poems about."

"You don't." Jace told her.

"**ORGY IN HOBOKEN!" Clary heard someone, probably Eric, yell. Another cymbal crashed. She imagined her mother listening to Eric read his poetry, and she shuddered inwardly.**

"**I don't know. If all of you show up here, I think she'll freak."**

"**Then I'll come alone. I'll pick you up and we can walk over there together, meet the rest of them there. Your mom won't mind. She loves me."**

**Clary had to laugh. "Sign of her questionable taste, if you ask me."**

"**Nobody did." Simon clicked off, amid shouts from his bandmates.**

**Clary hung up the phone and glanced around the living room. Evidence of her mother's artistic tendencies was everywhere, from the handmade velvet throw pillows piled on the dark red sofa to the walls hung with Jocelyn's paintings, carefully framed—landscapes, mostly: the winding streets of downtown Manhattan lit with golden light; scenes of Prospect Park in winter, the gray ponds edged with lacelike films of white ice.**

**On the mantel over the fireplace was a framed photo of Clary's father. **

"Correction, a stranger." I, well, corrected.

**A thoughtful-looking fair man in military dress, his eyes bore the telltale traces of laugh lines at the corners. He'd been a decorated soldier serving overseas. Jocelyn had some of his medals in a small box by her bed. Not that the medals had done anyone any good when Jonathan Clark had crashed his car into a tree just outside Albany and died before his daughter was even born.**

"How did you even come up with that story?" I questioned, looking between mom and dad.

"Because it really happened, but the driver didn't die. Just injured." Mom told me, with her head tilted like she was remembering.

**Jocelyn had gone back to using her maiden name after he died. She never talked about Clary's father, but she kept the box engraved with his initials, J. C., next to her bed. Along with the medals were one or two photos, a wedding ring, and a single lock of blond hair. Sometimes Jocelyn took the box out and opened it and held the lock of hair very gently in her hands before putting it back and carefully locking the box up again.**

Of course, it was not my father. Well, maybe the wedding ring but everything was Jonathon, my brother. I tried not to think back to that time when she probably lost her first born son.

Mom and Dad didn't say anything, but remain silent and stared at the floor.

**The sound of the key turning in the front door roused Clary out of her reverie. Hastily she threw herself down on the couch and tried to look as if she were immersed in one of the paperbacks her mother had left stacked on the end table. Jocelyn recognized reading as a sacred pastime and usually wouldn't interrupt Clary in the middle of a book, even to yell at her.**

At this, mom turned and gave me a little glare. I smile and held my hand outs in a 'I'm innocent' type of way. Which caused Luke to laugh slightly.

**The door opened with a thump. It was Luke, his arms full of what looked like big square pieces of pasteboard. When he set them down, Clary saw that they were cardboard boxes, folded flat. He straightened up and turned to her with a smile.**

"**Hey, Un—hey, Luke," she said. He'd asked her to stop calling him Uncle Luke about a year ago, claiming that it made him feel old, and anyway reminded him of Uncle Tom's Cabin. **

"I think he had an ulterior motive at you to stop calling him 'Uncle,' Luke ." Izzy said giving a wink and grinning at Luke who sighed and shook his head.

**Besides, he'd reminded her gently, he wasn't really her uncle, just a close friend of her mother's who'd known her all her life. "Where's Mom?"**

"Also a man who was deeply in love with said 'Close friend.'" Izzy wiggled her eyebrows, teasing further which caused a round of laughter from us.

"**Parking the truck," he said, straightening his lanky frame with a groan. He was dressed in his usual uniform: old jeans, a flannel shirt, and a bent pair of gold-rimmed spectacles that sat askew on the bridge of his nose. "Remind me again why this building has no service elevator?"**

"**Because it's old, and has character," Clary said immediately. Luke grinned. "What are the boxes for?" she asked.**

**His grin vanished. "Your mother wanted to pack up some things," he said, avoiding her gaze.**

"More like she wanted to run away." Simon said shaking his head.

"I don't get it. Why not tell her? You're just putting her in more danger without the training she would need to stay alive. Running isn't the answer anymore when she is almost of age." Henry questions my parents with a confused look. Neither one answered.

"**What things?" Clary asked.**

**He gave an airy wave. "Extra stuff lying around the house. Getting in the way. You know she never throws anything out. So what are you up to? Studying?" He plucked the book out of her hand and read out loud: "'The world still teems with those motley beings whom a more sober philosophy has discarded. Fairies and goblins, ghosts and demons, still hover about—'" He lowered the book and looked at her over his glasses. "Is this for school?"**

"**The Golden Bough? No. School's not for a few weeks." Clary took the book back from him. "It's my mom's."**

"**I had a feeling."**

**She dropped it back on the table. "Luke?"**

"**Uh-huh?" The book already forgotten, he was rummaging in the tool kit next to the hearth. "Ah, here it is." He pulled out an orange plastic tape gun and gazed at it with deep satisfaction.**

"**What would you do if you saw something nobody else could see?"**

**The tape gun fell out of Luke's hand, and hit the tiled hearth. He knelt to pick it up, not looking at her. "You mean if I were the only witness to a crime, that sort of thing?"**

"Noooooo, Luke." I gave him an evil smile. "I mean Faeries, Werewolves, Vampires, Warlocks, Demons, Shadowhunters, you know things Mundanes can't see."

He fixed me a mock-glare that I returned before smiling at him.

"**No. I mean, if there were other people around, but you were the only one who could see something. As if it were invisible to everyone but you."**

**He hesitated, still kneeling, the dented tape gun gripped in his hand.**

"**I know it sounds crazy," Clary ventured nervously, "but …"**

**He turned around. His eyes, very blue behind the glasses, rested on her with a look of firm affection. "Clary, you're an artist, like your mother. That means you see the world in ways that other people don't. It's your gift, to see the beauty and the horror in ordinary things. It doesn't make you crazy—just different. There's nothing wrong with being different."**

"I think Clary being an Artist was just a way to blame what she could see when she does see our world." Jace announced with a slight tilt of his head, seeming to think about it more. Seeing as nobody was going to say anything more, Magnus continued.

**Clary pulled her legs up, and rested her chin on her knees. In her mind's eye she saw the storage room, Isabelle's gold whip, the blue-haired boy convulsing in his death spasms, and Jace's tawny eyes. Beauty and horror. She said, "If my dad had lived, do you think he'd have been an artist too?"**

**Luke looked taken aback. Before he could answer her, the door swung open and Clary's mother stalked into the room, her boot heels clacking on the polished wooden floor. She handed Luke a set of jingling car keys and turned to look at her daughter.**

**Jocelyn Fray was a slim, compact woman, her hair a few shades darker than Clary's and twice as long. At the moment it was twisted up in a dark red knot, stuck through with a graphite pen to hold it in place. She wore paint-spattered overalls over a lavender T-shirt, and brown hiking boots whose soles were caked with oil paint.**

**People always told Clary that she looked like her mother, but she couldn't see it herself. The only thing that was similar about them was their figures: They were both slender, with small chests and narrow hips. She knew she wasn't beautiful like her mother was. **

"I disagree." Jace whispered in my ear. Trailing his fingers lightly down my back, causing my to shiver. "You're even more beautiful than she is."

I felt a smile form on my face, and before I could reply. Alec spoke up in a teasing manor. "You know, if Clary wasn't fixing to give me another niece or nephew I would say we should start to get ready for one."

This caused me to blush for an unknown reason. This was my husband we were talking about having a child with. One that everyone knew how they were created, so I shouldn't be embarrassed. I could feel Jace's chest moving as he silently chuckled. "Ah. My innocent little Redhead."

"You mean, not so innocent little redhead, anymore." Izzy smirked at me. I stuck my tongue out at her. Causing her to laugh right out.

"You could do more with that tongue than stick out at me." Of course, this caused me to blush even more. Fortunately, Jace came to my rescue.

"Okay. Okay. Leave my wife alone. Magnus read."

**To be beautiful you had to be willowy and tall. When you were as short as Clary was, just over five feet, you were cute. Not pretty or beautiful, but cute. Throw in carroty hair and a face full of freckles, and she was a Raggedy Ann to her mother's Barbie doll.**

"Okay. I hope Jace fixed that train of thought." Izzy said glaring at me. I nod my head, Jace did that and more.

**Jocelyn even had a graceful way of walking that made people turn their heads to watch her go by. **

"Shadowhunter training seems to do that." Simon pointed out. We both had noticed the difference in the way we walked. We too, were now graceful when we walked.

**Clary, by contrast, was always tripping over her feet. The only time people turned to watch her go by was when she hurtled past them as she fell downstairs.**

Point proven, I don't do that anymore.

"**Thanks for bringing the boxes up," Clary's mother said to Luke, and smiled at him. He didn't return the smile. Clary's stomach did an uneasy flip. Clearly there was something going on. "Sorry it took me so long to find a space. There must be a million people at the park today—"**

"**Mom?" Clary interrupted. "What are the boxes for?"**

**Jocelyn bit her lip. Luke flicked his eyes toward Clary, mutely urging Jocelyn forward. With a nervous twitch of her wrist, Jocelyn pushed a dangling lock of hair behind her ear and went to join her daughter on the couch.**

**Up close Clary could see how tired her mother looked. There were dark half-moons under her eyes, and her lids were pearly with sleeplessness.**

"**Is this about last night?" Clary asked.**

"**No," her mother said quickly, and then hesitated. "Maybe a little. You shouldn't have done what you did last night. You know better."**

"**And I already apologized. What is this about? If you're grounding me, get it over with."**

"**I'm not," said her mother, "grounding you." **

"At least, not in that moment." Mom told me. "I had something more important to talk to you about."

**Her voice was as taut as a wire. She glanced at Luke, who shook his head.**

"**Just tell her, Jocelyn," he said.**

"**Could you not talk about me like I'm not here?" Clary said angrily. "And what do you mean, 'tell me'? Tell me what?"**

**Jocelyn expelled a sigh. "We're going on vacation."**

**Luke's expression went blank, like a canvas wiped clean of paint.**

"I take it as, that was not what you were thinking about?" Magnus interrupted his own reading.

**Clary shook her head. "That's what this is about? You're going on vacation?" She sank back against the cushions. "I don't get it. Why the big production?"**

"**I don't think you understand. I meant we're all going on vacation. The three of us—you, me, and Luke. We're going to the farmhouse."**

"**Oh." Clary glanced at Luke, but he had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring out the window, his jaw pulled tight. She wondered what was upsetting him. He loved the old farmhouse in upstate New York—he'd bought and restored it himself ten years before, and he went there whenever he could. "For how long?"**

"**For the rest of the summer," said Jocelyn. "I brought the boxes in case you want to pack up any books, painting supplies—"**

"**For the rest of the summer?" Clary sat upright with indignation. "I can't do that, Mom. I have plans—simon and I were going to have a back-to-school party, and I've got a bunch of meetings with my art group, and ten more classes at Tisch—"**

"**I'm sorry about Tisch. But the other things can be canceled. Simon will understand, and so will your art group."**

**Clary heard the implacability in her mother's tone and realized she was serious. "But I paid for those art classes! I saved up all year! You promised." She whirled, turning to Luke. "Tell her! Tell her it isn't fair!"**

"It wasn't, but it was for your safety. Though, even then I believed she should've told you what you were and trained you. At least you had a fighting chance." Dad commented.

**Luke didn't look away from the window, though a muscle jumped in his cheek. "She's your mother. It's her decision to make."**

"**I don't get it." Clary turned back to her mother. "Why?"**

"Because you're evil father is out to get you." Simon piped in.

"**I have to get away, Clary," Jocelyn said, the corners of her mouth trembling. "I need the peace, the quiet, to paint. And money is tight right now—"**

"**So sell some more of Dad's stocks," Clary said angrily. "That's what you usually do, isn't it?"**

**Jocelyn recoiled. "That's hardly fair."**

"**Look, go if you want to go. I don't care. I'll stay here without you. I can work; I can get a job at Starbucks or something. Simon said they're always hiring. I'm old enough to take care of myself—"**

"**No!" The sharpness in Jocelyn's voice made Clary jump. "I'll pay you back for the art classes, Clary. But you are coming with us. It isn't optional. You're too young to stay here on your own. Something could happen."**

"**Like what? What could happen?" Clary demanded.**

"Death is the worst possible outcome of many, Clarrisa." Jem commented.

**There was a crash. She turned in surprise to find that Luke had knocked over one of the framed pictures leaning against the wall. Looking distinctly upset, he set it back. When he straightened, his mouth was set in a grim line. "I'm leaving."**

**Jocelyn bit her lip. "Wait." She hurried after him into the entryway, catching up just as he seized the doorknob. Twisting around on the sofa, Clary could just overhear her mother's urgent whisper. "…Bane," Jocelyn was saying. "I've been calling him and calling him for the past three weeks. His voice mail says he's in Tanzania. What am I supposed to do?"**

Magnus chuckled. "Sorry, but you got to admit, you would've never stop coming to me if I was always there."

My mother sighed and nods her head. I made a noise of disagreement and turned to dad.

"Luke, are you going to sit there and say that you weren't going to tell mom that she needed to stop?"

Luke said nothing. "DAD!" He sighed.

"I would have told you eventually, Clary. If your mother agreed or not. I would've." I nod feeling a little better that he _would've_ told me.

"**Jocelyn." Luke shook his head. "You can't keep going to him forever."**

"**But Clary—"**

"**Isn't Jonathan," Luke hissed. "You've never been the same since it happened, but Clary isn't Jonathan."**

**What does my father have to do with this? Clary thought, bewildered.**

"**I can't just keep her at home, not let her go out. She won't put up with it."**

"**Of course she won't!" Luke sounded really angry. "She's not a pet, she's a teenager. Almost an adult."**

"**If we were out of the city …"**

"**Talk to her, Jocelyn." Luke's voice was firm. "I mean it." He reached for the doorknob.**

**The door flew open. Jocelyn gave a little scream.**

"**Jesus!" Luke exclaimed.**

"**Actually, it's just me," said Simon. "Although I've been told the resemblance is startling." **

"That sounds like something Jace would say." Magnus commented. "Even Will."

Jace and Will smirked, of course that would be what they would think. Tessa and I shook our heads.

**He waved at Clary from the doorway. "You ready?"**

**Jocelyn took her hand away from her mouth. "Simon, were you eavesdropping?"**

**Simon blinked. "No, I just got here." He looked from Jocelyn's pale face to Luke's grim one. "Is something wrong? Should I go?"**

"**Don't bother," Luke said. "I think we're done here." He pushed past Simon, thudding down the stairs at a rapid pace. Downstairs, the front door slammed shut.**

I can honestly say that that was the first time I have seen him get _that _angry. As I thought back to it.

**Simon hovered in the doorway, looking uncertain. "I can come back later," he said. "Really. It wouldn't be a problem."**

"**That might—" Jocelyn began, but Clary was already on her feet.**

"**Forget it, Simon. We're leaving," she said, grabbing her messenger bag from a hook near the door. She slung it over her shoulder, glaring at her mother. "See you later, Mom."**

**Jocelyn bit her lip. "Clary, don't you think we should talk about this?"**

"**We'll have plenty of time to talk while we're on 'vacation,'" Clary said venomously, and had the satisfaction of seeing her mother flinch. "Don't wait up," she added, and, grabbing Simon's arm, she half-dragged him out the front door.**

**He dug his heels in, looking apologetically over his shoulder at Clary's mother, who stood small and forlorn in the entryway, her hands knitted tightly together. "Bye, Mrs. Fray!" he called. "Have a nice evening!"**

"**Oh, shut up, Simon," Clary snapped, and slammed the door behind them, cutting off her mother's reply.**

"**Jesus, woman, don't rip my arm off," Simon protested as Clary hauled him downstairs after her, her green Skechers slapping against the wooden stairs with every angry step. **

"You were unusually strong for someone of you weight and height. We just didn't know why until the Shadowhunter jazz came up." Simon commented, rubbing his arm as if he could still feel the pain of me pulling on his arm.

Though I was almost 100 percent positive that I wasn't pulling him that hard.

**She glanced up, half-expecting to see her mother glaring down from the landing, but the apartment door stayed shut.**

"**Sorry," Clary muttered, letting go of his wrist. She paused at the foot of the stairs, her messenger bag banging against her hip.**

**Clary's brownstone, like most in Park Slope, had once been the single residence of a wealthy family. Shades of its former grandeur were still evident in the curving staircase, the chipped marble entryway floor, and the wide single-paned skylight overhead. Now the house was split into separate apartments, and Clary and her mother shared the three-floor building with a downstairs tenant, an elderly woman who ran a psychic's shop out of her apartment. She hardly ever came out of it, though customer visits were infrequent. A gold plaque fixed to the door proclaimed her to be MADAME DOROTHEA, SEERESS AND PROPHETESS.**

**The thick sweet scent of incense spilled from the half-open door into the foyer. Clary could hear a low murmur of voices.**

"**Nice to see she's doing a booming business," Simon said. "It's hard to get steady prophet work these days."**

"**Do you have to be sarcastic about everything?" Clary snapped.**

**Simon blinked, clearly taken aback. "I thought you liked it when I was witty and ironic."**

**Clary was about to reply when the door to Madame Dorothea's swung fully open and a man stepped out. He was tall, with maple-syrup-colored skin, gold-green eyes like a cat's, and tangled black hair. He grinned at her blindingly, showing sharp white teeth.**

I turned wide-eyed at Magnus. "It's was you!"

He grinned at me. "Seems like the cat is out of the bag." I glared at his joke. Knowing that that was what I ended up thinking I saw.

**A wave of dizziness came over her, the strong sensation that she was going to faint.**

**Simon glanced at her uneasily. "Are you all right? You look like you're going to pass out."**

**She blinked at him. "What? No, I'm fine."**

**He didn't seem to want to let it drop. "You look like you just saw a ghost."**

**She shook her head. The memory of having seen something teased her, but when she tried to concentrate, it slid away like water. "Nothing. I thought I saw Dorothea's cat, but I guess it was just a trick of the light." Simon stared at her. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday," she added defensively. "I guess I'm a little out of it."**

**He slid a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Come on, I'll buy you some food."**

"**I just can't believe she's being like this," Clary said for the fourth time, chasing a stray bit of guacamole around her plate with the tip of a nacho. They were at a neighborhood Mexican joint, a hole in the wall called Nacho Mama. "Like grounding me every other week wasn't bad enough. Now I'm going to be exiled for the rest of the summer."**

"**Well, you know, your mom gets like this sometimes," Simon said. "Like when she breathes in or out." He grinned at her around his veggie burrito.**

Mom made a noise of disagreement with her 'temper.'

"Mom you have to agree, that you found whatever excuse you could to keep me inside." Mom didn't even try to defend that she didn't do that.

"**Oh, sure, act like it's funny," she said. "You're not the one getting dragged off to the middle of nowhere for God knows how long—"**

"**Clary." Simon interrupted her tirade. "I'm not the one you're mad at. Besides, it isn't going to be permanent."**

"**How do you know that?"**

"**Well, because I know your mom," Simon said, after a pause. "I mean, you and I have been friends for what, ten years now? I know she gets like this sometimes. She'll think better of it."**

**Clary picked a hot pepper off her plate and nibbled the edge meditatively. "Do you, though?" she said. "Know her, I mean? I sometimes wonder if anyone does."**

"Well, Luke does." Izzy said. "Better than anyone." She finished wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive way. Luke sighed, knowing it was no use to try and get over with our teasing, well Izzy teasing to him.

**Simon blinked at her. "You lost me there."**

**Clary sucked in air to cool her burning mouth. "I mean, she never talks about herself. I don't know anything about her early life, or her family, or much about how she met my dad. She doesn't even have wedding photos. It's like her life started when she had me. That's what she always says when I ask her about it."**

"**Aw." Simon made a face at her. "That's sweet."**

"**No, it isn't. It's weird. It's weird that I don't know anything about my grandparents. I mean, I know my dad's parents weren't very nice to her, but could they have been that bad? What kind of people don't want to even meet their granddaughter?"**

"**Maybe she hates them. Maybe they were abusive or something," Simon suggested. "She does have those scars."**

"Oh look the Mundane saw your scars." Jace commented. "He really shouldn't have if you wouldn't let Clary see them."

**Clary stared at him. "She has what?"**

**He swallowed a mouthful of burrito. "Those little thin scars. All over her back and her arms. I have seen your mother in a bathing suit, you know."**

"**I never noticed any scars," Clary said decidedly. "I think you're imagining things."**

Nope. I thought. Just hidden from me as soon as I saw them.

**He stared at her, and seemed about to say something when her cell phone, buried in her messenger bag, began an insistent blaring. Clary fished it out, gazed at the numbers blinking on the screen, and scowled. "It's my mom."**

"**I could tell from the look on your face. You going to talk to her?"**

"**Not right now," Clary said, feeling the familiar bite of guilt in her stomach as the phone stopped ringing and voice mail picked up. "I don't want to fight with her."**

"**You can always stay at my house," Simon said. "For as long as you want."**

"**Well, we'll see if she calms down first." Clary punched the voice mail button on her phone. Her mother's voice sounded tense, but she was clearly trying for lightness. "Baby, I'm sorry if I sprang the vacation plan on you. Come on home and we'll talk." Clary hung the phone up before the message ended, feeling even guiltier and still angry at the same time. "She wants to talk about it."**

"**Do you want to talk to her?"**

"**I don't know." Clary rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes. "Are you still going to the poetry reading?"**

"**I promised I would."**

"You should've broke it." I mumbled to Simon. Simon rolled his eyes; bring Izzy closer to him since Robin, Gabe, and Joshua were in the middle of the room playing a game only they understood. It was actually pretty cute.

**Clary stood up, pushing her chair back. "Then I'll go with you. I'll call her when it's over." The strap of her messenger bag slid down her arm. Simon pushed it back up absently, his fingers lingering at the bare skin of her shoulder.**

**The air outside was spongy with moisture, the humidity frizzing Clary's hair and sticking Simon's blue T-shirt to his back. "So, what's up with the band?" she asked. "Anything new? There was a lot of yelling in the background when I talked to you earlier."**

**Simon's face lit up. "Things are great," he said. "Matt says he knows someone who could get us a gig at the Scrap Bar. We're talking about names again too."**

"**Oh, yeah?" Clary hid a smile. Simon's band never actually produced any music. Mostly they sat around in Simon's living room, fighting about potential names and band logos. She sometimes wondered if any of them could actually play an instrument. "What's on the table?"**

"**We're choosing between Sea Vegetable Conspiracy and Rock Solid Panda."**

"What kind of names are those?" Alec questioned, making a face that clearly stated his discuss in the names.

"Names that my friends seemed to like." Simon defended, almost.

"Your friends have no taste." Will decided to throw in his opinion.

"Yes, I know. But now we are called Outside men."

"The Outside men?" Izzy questioned, confused. "What happened to The Mooners?"

"Jordan and I didn't like that name." Before Izzy could respond to Simon's band always changing their name, Magnus made them move on.

**Clary shook her head. "Those are both terrible."**

"**Eric suggested Lawn Chair Crisis."**

"**Maybe Eric should stick to gaming."**

"**But then we'd have to find a new drummer."**

"**Oh, is that what Eric does? I thought he just mooched money off you and went around telling girls at school that he was in a band in order to impress them."**

"**Not at all," Simon said breezily. "Eric has turned over a new leaf. He has a girlfriend. They've been going out for three months."**

"**Practically married," **

"No. In the Shadowhunter world you're practically married, though." Jace 'helped' with the information.

"Oh? Then why did you wait to marry Clary until you were dating at least a year?" Izzy questioned, Jace.

"Because she was raised as a Mundane and I wanted to give her some normalcy. Why did you and Alec wait till after Clary and I got married to get married?"

"Because-" Magnus interrupted, again.

**Clary said, stepping around a couple pushing a toddler in a stroller: a little girl with yellow plastic clips in her hair who was clutching a pixie doll with gold-streaked sapphire wings. Out of the corner of her eye Clary thought she saw the wings flutter. She turned her head hastily.**

I guess I'll now know when things were truly covered up for me to believe them as not there.

"**Which means," Simon continued, "that I am the last member of the band not to have a girlfriend. Which, you know, is the whole point of being in a band. To get girls."**

"And oh was that working for you?" Jace smirked.

"I got your sister, didn't I?" With just as much as a smirk. Jace rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"**I thought it was all about the music." A man with a cane cut across her path, heading for Berkeley Street. She glanced away, afraid that if she looked at anyone for too long they would sprout wings, extra arms, or long forked tongues like snakes. "Who cares if you have a girlfriend, anyway?"**

"**I care," Simon said gloomily. "Pretty soon the only people left without a girlfriend will be me and Wendell the school janitor. And he smells like Windex."**

Actually now, Jordan and Simon are the only ones married. Eric and the rest of them can't even keep a steady girlfriend. It's almost funny how that worked out.

"**At least you know he's still available."**

**Simon glared. "Not funny, Fray."**

"**There's always Sheila 'The Thong' Barbarino," Clary suggested. Clary had sat behind her in math class in ninth grade. Every time Sheila had dropped her pencil—which had been often—Clary had been treated to the sight of Sheila's underwear riding up above the waistband of her super-low-rise jeans.**

"That screams, Slut." Izzy commented. Simon and I nods our head in agreement.

"Actually sounds like someone Jace would've gone for." I narrowed my eyes at Izzy as Jace flipped her off.

"That was past Jace." Jace told Izzy.

"**That is who Eric's been dating for the past three months," Simon said. "His advice, meanwhile, was that I ought to just decide which girl in school had the most rockin' bod and ask her out on the first day of classes."**

"**Eric is a sexist pig," Clary said, suddenly not wanting to know which girl in school Simon thought had the most rockin' bod. "Maybe you should call the band the Sexist Pigs."**

"**It has a ring to it." Simon seemed unfazed. Clary made a face at him, her messenger bag vibrating as her phone blared. She fished it out of the zip pocket. "Is it your mom again?" he asked.**

**Clary nodded. She could see her mother in her mind's eye, small and alone in the doorway of their apartment. Guilt unfurled in her chest.**

**She glanced up at Simon, who was looking at her, his eyes dark with concern. His face was so familiar she could have traced its lines in her sleep. She thought of the lonely weeks that stretched ahead without him, and shoved the phone back into her bag. "Come on," she said. "We're going to be late for the show."**

"And done." Magnus declared as he slammed the book closed. When we looked at the clock, it appeared to be lunch time. Well, at least for me. Eating for two seemed to have me always hungry. I commented that much, Jace chuckled and moved so that he could cook everyone some food. Well, if they were hungry at least.


	4. Reading Prt 1, Ch 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments. **

_Ch. 4- Reading Prt 1, Chapter 3_

We decided to question what time Will, Jem, Tessa, Charlotte, and Henry was from. Turns out. Jem was from a time earlier than the rest of them, 1878. The others from about a year or two behind, well ahead of him. I knew he had major questions to ask when their group is by themselves. So we didn't talk any more, passed that. We waited about an hour before we went back to reading. This time I took the book, I waited until Jace was sitting down and got comfortable with laying my head on his lap sideways, my bulging stomach wouldn't allow me to lay on my back.

"Chapter 3" **Shadowhunter.**

**By the time they got to Java Jones, Eric was already onstage, swaying back and forth in front of the microphone with his eyes squinched shut. He'd dyed the tips of his hair pink for the occasion. Behind him, Matt, looking stoned, was beating irregularly on a djembe.**

"Matt probably was stoned." Simon commented, tilting his head slightly in thought. "He sometimes is when we perform or _he_ performs."

"**This is going to suck so hard," Clary predicted. She grabbed Simon's sleeve and tugged him toward the doorway. "If we make a run for it, we can still get away."**

I moved the book out of my face and glanced at Simon. "We should've left, my ears wouldn't have been tortured."

"Agreed." Jace said nodding his head.

**He shook his head determinedly. "I'm nothing if not a man of my word." He squared his shoulders. "I'll get the coffee if you find us a seat. What do you want?"**

"**Just coffee. Black—like my soul."**

"Your soul isn't black Clary." Izzy commented, shaking her head smiling slightly.

"Unless she's pissed." Jace muttered. I looked up at him with my eyes narrowed.

"You're so lucky I am pregnant." I threatened. Jace smirked at me before bending down and kissing my temple. _Almost_ getting him out of that comment.

**Simon headed off toward the coffee bar, muttering under his breath something to the effect that it was a far, far better thing he did now than he had ever done before. Clary went to find them a seat.**

**The coffee shop was crowded for a Monday; most of the threadbare-looking couches and armchairs were taken up with teenagers enjoying a free weeknight. The smell of coffee and clove cigarettes was overwhelming. Finally Clary found an unoccupied love seat in a darkened corner toward the back. The only other person nearby was a blond girl in an orange tank top, absorbed in playing with her iPod. **

I started to smile out of nowhere.

**Good, Clary thought, Eric won't be able to find us back here after the show to ask how his poetry was.**

"It didn't matter you didn't stay." Simon muttered. Jace chuckled, grinning at me then at Simon-with a smirk.

"Yeah, she had something better to look forward too." Motioning to himself. Izzy and Alec rolled their eyes.

**The blond girl leaned over the side of her chair and tapped Clary on the shoulder. "Excuse me." Clary looked up in surprise. "Is that your boyfriend?" the girl asked.**

**Clary followed the line of the girl's gaze, already prepared to say, No, I don't know him, when she realized the girl meant Simon. He was headed toward them, face scrunched up in concentration as he tried not to drop either of his Styrofoam cups. "Uh, no," Clary said. "He's a friend of mine."**

**The girl beamed. "He's cute. Does he have a girlfriend?"**

**Clary hesitated a second too long before replying. "No."**

**The girl looked suspicious. "Is he gay?"**

Simon made a noise, taking the comment to heart. While Jace busted out laughing. Smiling I continued reading, not waiting for Jace to calm down, like everyone else had already.

**Clary was spared responding to this by Simon's return. The blond girl sat back hastily as he set the cups on the table and threw himself down next to Clary. "I hate it when they run out of mugs. Those things are hot." He blew on his fingers and scowled. Clary tried to hide a smile as she watched him. Normally she never thought about whether Simon was good-looking or not. He had pretty dark eyes, she supposed, and he'd filled out well over the past year or so. With the right haircut—**

"Oh geez, thanks Clary." Simon rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Well don't worry about her. I thought you were cute when I first saw you. And that awkward thing you had going was actually a weird turn on." Izzy said, trying to cheer up Simon.

"Thanks, I really wanted to know what turned you on by Rat face over there, Izzy. Thanks." Jace had a discussed look on his face, along with Alec.

"No problem." She grinned at him.

"**You're staring at me," Simon said. "Why are you staring at me? Have I got something on my face?"**

**I should tell him, she thought, though some part of her was strangely reluctant. I'd be a bad friend if I didn't. "Don't look now, but that blond girl over there thinks you're cute," she whispered.**

**Simon's eyes flicked sideways to stare at the girl, who was industriously studying an issue of Shonen Jump. "The girl in the orange top?" Clary nodded. Simon looked dubious. "What makes you think so?"**

"The fact that she just ask Clary if you were available." Izzy commented like she didn't care.

"Well, who would've thought a girl thought he was cute?" Magnus questioned.

"Most don't." Jace commented.

"Hey!" Simon exclaimed, offended.

"Leave my husband alone. I thought he was cute, hot, desirable even." Izzy defended.

"Well it is a miracle that someone as hot as Isabelle could like Simon." Magnus commented.

**Tell him. Go on, tell him. Clary opened her mouth to reply, and was interrupted by a burst of feedback. She winced and covered her ears as Eric, onstage, wrestled with his microphone.**

"**Sorry about that, guys!" he yelled. "All right. I'm Eric, and this is my homeboy Matt on the drums. My first poem is called 'Untitled.'" He screwed up his face as if in pain, and wailed into the mike. "'Come, my faux juggernaut, my nefarious loins! Slather every protuberance with arid zeal!'"**

**Simon slid down in his seat. "Please don't tell anyone I know him."**

"Gladly."

**Clary giggled. "Who uses the word 'loins'?"**

"**Eric," Simon said grimly. "All his poems have loins in them."**

"'**Turgid is my torment!'" Eric wailed. "'Agony swells within!'"**

"I am in agony just listening to this." Will commented, going as far as covering his ears.

"**You bet it does," Clary said. She slid down in the seat next to Simon. "Anyway, about that girl who thinks you're cute—"**

"**Never mind that for a second," Simon said. Clary blinked at him in surprise. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about."**

"Oh god." Simon groaned throwing his head back, his cheeks turning a little red. Embarrassed, he obviously remembered this.

"**Furious Mole is not a good name for a band," Clary said immediately.**

"**Not that," Simon said. "It's about what we were talking about before. About me not having a girlfriend."**

"**Oh." Clary lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "Oh, I don't know. Ask Jaida Jones out," she suggested, naming one of the few girls at St. Xavier's she actually liked. "She's nice, and she likes you."**

"**I don't want to ask Jaida Jones out."**

"No, he wants you." Izzy giggled, then shaking her head as if it was all a joke. Which it probably is.

"**Why not?" Clary found herself seized with a sudden, unspecific resentment. "You don't like smart girls? Still seeking a rockin' bod?"**

"**Neither," said Simon, who seemed agitated. "I don't want to ask her out because it wouldn't really be fair to her if I did…."**

**He trailed off. Clary leaned forward. From the corner of her eye she could see the blond girl leaning forward too, plainly eavesdropping. "Why not?"**

"You are so clueless Clary." Alec gave me a small smile, shaking his head slightly. I huffed, but continued.

"**Because I like someone else," Simon said.**

"**Okay." Simon looked faintly greenish, the way he had once when he'd broken his ankle playing soccer in the park and had had to limp home on it. She wondered what on earth about liking someone could possibly have him wound up to such a pitch of anxiety. "You're not gay, are you?"**

**Simon's greenish color deepened. "If I were, I would dress better."**

Jace chuckled. "You _have_ meet Alec right?"

"HEY!" Alec exclaimed and threw a pillow at Jace, which bounced off and hit me in the face.

"Alexander, dear. You have to admit that your choice of clothing isn't as fabulous as mine."

"Face it Magnus, no body's fashion choice is as great as yours. Well, maybe except mine." Izzy piped in. Before they could possibly argue over who had the better clothing. I made sure to keep reading.

"**So, who is it, then?" Clary asked. She was about to add that if he were in love with Sheila Barbarino, Eric would kick his ass, when she heard someone cough loudly behind her. It was a derisive sort of cough, the kind of noise someone might make who was trying not to laugh out loud.**

**She turned around.**

**Sitting on a faded green sofa a few feet away from her was Jace. He was wearing the same dark clothes he'd had on the night before in the club. His arms were bare and covered with faint white lines like old scars. His wrists bore wide metal cuffs; she could see the bone handle of a knife protruding from the left one. He was looking right at her, the side of his narrow mouth quirked in amusement. Worse than the feeling of being laughed at was Clary's absolute conviction that he hadn't been sitting there five minutes ago.**

"Yes, I just appear in thin air. So watch your back." Jace declared. I rolled my eyes at him. Tessa, Will, Jem, Charlotte, and Henry seemed awfully confused and amused.

"**What is it?" Simon had followed her gaze, but it was obvious from the blank expression on his face that he couldn't see Jace.**

**But I see you. She stared at Jace as she thought it, and he raised his left hand to wave at her. A ring glittered on a slim finger. **

The same ring that was around my neck, now.

**He got to his feet and began walking, unhurriedly, toward the door. Clary's lips parted in surprise. He was leaving, just like that.**

"I knew you would follow. You're a curious little thing."

"I'm not little." I pouted, before I continued to read. Jace chuckled, before he placed his hand more firmly on my stomach affectionately.

**She felt Simon's hand on her arm. He was saying her name, asking her if something was wrong. She barely heard him. "I'll be right back," she heard herself say, as she sprang off the couch, almost forgetting to set her coffee cup down. She raced toward the door, leaving Simon staring after her.**

**Clary burst through the doors, terrified that Jace would have vanished into the alley shadows like a ghost. But he was there, slouched against the wall. He had just taken something out of his pocket and was punching buttons on it. He looked up in surprise as the door of the coffee shop fell shut behind her.**

"Never expected that you would follow me that fast."

**In the rapidly falling twilight, his hair looked coppery gold. "Your friend's poetry is terrible," he said.**

**Clary blinked, caught momentarily off guard. "What?"**

"**I said his poetry was terrible. It sounds like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting up words at random."**

"Probably what he does." Simon agrees.

"**I don't care about Eric's poetry." Clary was furious. "I want to know why you're following me."**

"**Who said I was following you?"**

"**Nice try. And you were eavesdropping, too. Do you want to tell me what this is about, or should I just call the police?"**

"**And tell them what?" Jace said witheringly. "That invisible people are bothering you? Trust me, little girl, the police aren't going to arrest someone they can't see."**

"**I told you before, my name is not 'little girl,'" she said through her teeth. "It's Clary."**

"I like how Clary isn't putting up with your crap." Izzy giggles, smiling at me.

"**I know," he said. "Pretty name. Like the herb, clary sage. In the old days people thought eating the seeds would let you see the Fair Folk. Did you know that?"**

"**I have no idea what you're talking about."**

"**You don't know much, do you?" he said. There was a lazy contempt in his gold eyes. "You seem to be a mundane like any other mundane, yet you can see me. It's a conundrum."**

"Mundanes, can see us." Will commented, apparently not catching up.

"Maybe in your time. But in this time, its almost impossible to find a Mundane with the sight." Magnus filled Will in.

"**What's a mundane?"**

"**Someone of the human world. Someone like you."**

"**But you're human," Clary said.**

"**I am," he said. "But I'm not like you." There was no defensiveness in his tone. He sounded like he didn't care if she believed him or not.**

"**You think you're better. That's why you were laughing at us."**

"**I was laughing at you because declarations of love amuse me, especially when unrequited," he said. "And because your Simon is one of the most mundane mundanes I've ever encountered. And because Hodge thought you might be dangerous, but if you are, you certainly don't know it."**

"Defiantly didn't know it." Magnus smiled at me, almost with a little pride. I had to keep reminding myself he has practically watch me grow my whole life.

"**I'm dangerous?" Clary echoed in astonishment. "I saw you kill someone last night. I saw you drive a knife up under his ribs, and—" And I saw him slash at you with fingers like razor blades. I saw you cut and bleeding, and now you look as if nothing ever touched you. **

"A healing rune, is a wonderful thing." Jace commented.

"**I may be a killer," Jace said, "but I know what I am. Can you say the same?"**

"**I'm an ordinary human being, just like you said. Who's Hodge?"**

"**My tutor. And I wouldn't be so quick to brand myself as ordinary, if I were you." He leaned forward. "Let me see your right hand."**

"**My right hand?" Clary echoed. He nodded. "If I show you my hand, will you leave me alone?"**

"**Certainly." **

"Not." Jace finished.

**His voice was edged with amusement.**

**She held out her right hand grudgingly. It looked pale in the half-light spilling from the windows, the knuckles dotted with a light dusting of freckles. Somehow she felt as exposed as if she were pulling up her shirt and showing him her naked chest. **

"How does it feel now that you're married to him?" Izzy asked amused.

"How do you think? I am carrying his baby." Izzy's smirk gotten bigger at the comment.

**He took her hand in his and turned it over. "Nothing." He sounded almost disappointed. "You're not left-handed, are you?"**

"**No. Why?"**

**He released her hand with a shrug. "Most Shadowhunter children get Marked on their right hands—or left, if they're left-handed like I am—when they're still young. It's a permanent rune that lends an extra skill with weapons." He showed her the back of his left hand; it looked perfectly normal to her.**

"**I don't see anything," she said.**

"**Let your mind relax," he suggested. "Wait for it to come to you. Like waiting for something to rise to the surface of water."**

"**You're crazy." But she relaxed, gazing at his hand, seeing the tiny lines across the knuckles, the long joints of the fingers—**

**It jumped out at her suddenly, flashing like a DON'T WALK sign. A black design like an eye across the back of his hand. She blinked, and it vanished. "A tattoo?"**

**He smiled smugly and lowered his hand. "I thought you could do it. And it's not a tattoo—it's a Mark. They're runes, burned into our skin."**

"You're telling her too much." Alec chastise. "We didn't know what she was yet. Friend, Enemy, and you could be helping the wrong end."

"Alec, stop being a party pooper." Izzy groaned in annoyance.

"**They make you handle weapons better?" Clary found this hard to believe, though perhaps no more hard to believe than the existence of zombies.**

"**Different Marks do different things. Some are permanent but the majority vanish when they've been used."**

"**That's why your arms aren't all inked up today?" she asked. "Even when I concentrate?"**

"**That's exactly why." He sounded pleased with himself. "I knew you had the Sight, at least." He glanced up at the sky. "It's nearly full dark. We should go."**

"**We? I thought you were going to leave me alone."**

"**I lied," Jace said without a shred of embarrassment. "Hodge said I have to bring you to the Institute with me. He wants to talk to you."**

"I don't want to talk to him." I mumbled.

"**Why would he want to talk to me?"**

"**Because you know the truth now," Jace said. "There hasn't been a mundane who knew about us for at least a hundred years."**

"**About us?" she echoed. "You mean people like you. People who believe in demons."**

"Correction. We fight demons." Izzy smiles. "And look sexy as hell while doing it."

She looks down at her hands. "Which reminds me, Clary do you want to go with me and get our nails done?"

"Ummm… sure?" I tried and failed to raise on of my eyebrows.

"Oooo, can I go?" Magnus questioned.

"Sure. Girls and Magnus day soon!" Izzy exclaimed. "Boys can babysit."

They grumble but agree when Izzy threatens to cut a part of their manhood off.

"**People who kill them," said Jace. "We're called Shadowhunters. At least, that's what we call ourselves. The Downworlders have less complimentary names for us."**

"**Downworlders?"**

"**The Night Children. Warlocks. The fey. The magical folk of this dimension."**

**Clary shook her head. "Don't stop there. I suppose there are also, what, vampires and werewolves and zombies?"**

"**Of course there are," Jace informed her. "Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are."**

"**What about mummies? Do they only hang around Egypt?"**

"**Don't be ridiculous. No one believes in mummies."**

"**They don't?"**

"**Of course not," Jace said. "Look, Hodge will explain all this to you when you see him."**

**Clary crossed her arms over her chest. "What if I don't want to see him?"**

"**That's your problem. You can come either willingly or unwillingly."**

**Clary couldn't believe her ears. "Are you threatening to kidnap me?"**

"**If you want to look at it that way," Jace said, "yes."**

"Jace!" Izzy stretched. I flinched, along with everyone else. "You don't threaten to kidnap someone, who you want to trust you."

Jace response was to shrug.

**Clary opened her mouth to protest angrily, but was interrupted by a strident buzzing noise. Her phone was ringing again.**

"**Go ahead and answer that if you like," Jace said generously.**

I took a breath, this is where I would learn that my mother was kidnapped by my father. The call that led to everything I am today.

**The phone stopped ringing, then started up again, loud and insistent. Clary frowned—her mom must really be freaking out. She half-turned away from Jace and began digging in her bag. By the time she unearthed the phone, it was on its third set of rings. She raised it to her ear. "Mom?"**

"**Oh, Clary. Oh, thank God." A sharp prickle of alarm ran up Clary's spine. Her mother sounded panicked. "Listen to me—"**

"**It's all right, Mom. I'm fine. I'm on my way home—"**

"**No!" Terror scraped Jocelyn's voice raw. "Don't come home! Do you understand me, Clary? Don't you dare come home. Go to Simon's. Go straight to Simon's house and stay there until I can—" A noise in the background interrupted her: the sound of something falling, shattering, something heavy striking the floor—**

"**Mom!" Clary shouted into the phone. "Mom, are you all right?"**

**A loud buzzing noise came from the phone. Clary's mother's voice cut through the static: "Just promise me you won't come home. Go to Simon's and call Luke—tell him that he's found me—" Her words were drowned out by a heavy crash like splintering wood.**

"**Who's found you? Mom, did you call the police? Did you—"**

**Her frantic question was cut off by a noise Clary would never forget—a harsh, slithering noise, followed by a thump. Clary heard her mother draw in a sharp breath before speaking, her voice eerily calm: "I love you, Clary."**

**The phone went dead.**

Everyone was deadly silent in the room. Luke had seemed to be thinking hard about the conversation with my mother on the phone.

"**Mom!" Clary shrieked into the phone. "Mom, are you there?" CALL ENDED, the screen said. But why would her mother have hung up like that?**

"**Clary," Jace said. It was the first time she'd ever heard him say her name. "What's going on?"**

**Clary ignored him. Feverishly she hit the button that dialed her home number. There was no answer except a double-tone busy signal.**

**Clary's hands had begun to shake uncontrollably. When she tried to redial, the phone slipped out of her shaking grasp and hit the pavement hard. She dropped to her knees to retrieve it, but it was dead, a long crack visible across the front. "Dammit!" Almost in tears, she threw the phone down.**

"**Stop that." Jace hauled her to her feet, his hand gripping her wrist. "Has something happened?"**

"**Give me your phone," Clary said, grabbing the black metal oblong out of his shirt pocket. "I have to—"**

"**It's not a phone," Jace said, making no move to get it back. "It's a Sensor. You won't be able to use it."**

"**But I need to call the police!"**

"**Tell me what happened first." She tried to yank her wrist back, but his grip was incredibly strong. "I can help you."**

**Rage flooded through Clary, a hot tide through her veins. Without even thinking about it, she struck out at his face, her nails raking his cheek. He jerked back in surprise. **

"Wow, Jace. You let a untrain Shadowhunter surprise you." Alec deadpanned.

"Shut it."

"I have a feeling, that this is where Jace started to like you." Izzy commented. Everyone turned to look at her. "Think about it. Has there been any girl that hit Jace. Or even argued, heck turned him down before Clary?"

No one answered, she huffed. "I also think, he was trying to get her to like him. And in the process he fell in love with her." Still no comment.

**Tearing herself free, Clary ran toward the lights of Seventh Avenue.**

**When she reached the street, she spun around, half-expecting to see Jace at her heels. But the alley was empty. For a moment she stared uncertainly into the shadows. Nothing moved inside them. She spun on her heel and ran for home.**

"I just jumped on the roof." Jace filled me in. And stopped the almost screech from Izzy about leaving me. "I tried to follow. But she just as fast as Jonathon and I were."

I closed the book and looked up at him. "No I am not."

"Yes you are. I think its because she was family and you wanted to protect her. Because so far I haven't seen that same speed. Actually not after that night. It was like your emotion was too much and you put it with getting to your home."

"Oh…okay. I guess. Well that was the end of the chapter." I finished awkwardly. I sat up, my back had started to hurt. Actually everything was now hurting.

"Can we finish later night? Ima take a nap." Everyone agrees. Jace helped me into our room and laid down with me, holding me too him.


	5. Reading Prt 1, Ch 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mortal Instruments. **

_Chapter 5- Reading Prt 1, Ch. 4_

I didn't know how long I was asleep for. But Jace wasn't in the bed when I woke. I can hear laughter down the hall. I followed it. I assume that the kids were also taking a nap, because they weren't in the room when I entered. The adults were sitting around telling stories. I saw Jace sitting by himself with a look of amusement, but you wouldn't know if you weren't me. I sat down next to him, sliding my hand into his trying to catch up with Magnus telling a story about when he first met Tessa.

During all this story telling, I had figured out that I had only been asleep for thirty minutes. I was still slightly in pain, but I didn't dare tell Jace he would over react. But I also knew I wouldn't be able to hide the pain from him long. But considering at this moment, he seemed to pay little attention to me. Because now Will was telling a story about when he first found Tessa. Henry and Jem threw in some things at the end, and it was interesting to see that side of Tessa.

I noticed that Henry, Charlotte, Will, Jem, and Tessa were all in clothes from their time. And they didn't seem comfortable, at all. The girls were sitting up straight, like it was the only way they could breathe properly. And the three men had too many pieces of clothing on. It was so different, but it looked like those clothing could get hot easily.

"Do you want to change into more comfortable clothing?" I questioned, interrupting whoever was now telling a story. Everyone turned to me, but I was too busy making eye contact with the five of them.

"I mean in clothes like ours..." I trailed off. "You just seem a little uncomfortable, that seems like a lot of clothes, when you don't need it."

"I agree." Magnus says, looking over to them. "It's a different time, try now and day clothing. If you don't like it, you can change back to those."

"I'll try." Will decided to step up. He looked over to the rest of his group. "Might as well." Slowly they seem to agree with us, to at least try it.

"Jem and Will seem to be Jace's size." Magnus eyed the three men and turned to Henry. "You're most likely Simon's size." They all nod and Jace and Simon lead the men into their rooms to get them new comfortable clothing. Magnus followed, but seemed to get his son and the rest of the kids that seemed to have fallen asleep all in the same bed in Magnus and Alec's room.

"Come on, Tessa and Charlotte." Izzy said taking them to her room, I simply followed. "We'll find you something."

"Strip." Izzy commented opening her door. Slowly, almost unsure they undressed down to what would be their underwear. Izzy sighed, taking in the girls features then walked over to her dresser throwing each of them a thong and a bra. Tessa and Charlotte looked puzzled, not knowing what to do.

We explained what they were and gave them privacy to change into those items. Izzy, seeming to know what exactly she wanted the two girls to wear went straight to her closet and grabbed to pair of pants one hot pink and the other grey. Throwing Charlotte the hot pink pair and Tessa the grey, I helped them into those while Izzy searched for shirts. Izzy knew that Tessa was more modest and threw her a shirt that would cover almost everything. It had spaghetti straps with the shoulder pieces cut out, so there was side sleeves. It had pink flowers on it with the leaves.

I wasn't big on doing people hair, but I did take Tessa down from its perfectly made bun and left it down to flow. I then see Izzy help Charlotte with her hair. I noticed that the shirt wasn't as covering as Tessa was. You can see Charlotte's belly button. The shirt itself was grey with cross bones on wear her chest was located. Izzy braided Charlotte's left side of her hair stopping just passed her ears, three total braids. The rest were down and wavy.

I must say, they looked hot. We didn't bother giving them shoes, but Izzy didn't pick a couple more outfits and gave then to each girls to change into through some days. We walked back into the living room. The two girls were confident with what they were wearing, though when they were in the room you could clearly see how unsure about themselves they were without those dresses.

When we got back, the men were back. Making the two girls stop, Izzy introduced them. "You are now seeing the new and improve Tessa and Charlotte." Walking in I can see that Henry's jaw dropped. He apparently liked his wife's new clothes. Will and Jem were both checking out Tessa. Both with a smile on their faces, almost like they appreciated the clothing. I decided to see what Jace and Simon put the three men in.

Henry was now wearing kakis and a button down blue plaid shirt that Izzy most likely bought Simon and he has never wore. Will seeming to be more like Jace was wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt. Jem was wearing Jace's, I think, only white shirt and regular blue jeans. They all looked uncomfortable in their new clothing choices but seemed to like the new feeling of being a little free from the constricting clothing they once had on. They also didn't have shoes on.

The kids were now all in the living room, still sleepy as they leaned their heads on their parents shoulders. Their eyes dropping every once in a while, apparently still hoping they were asleep. I made myself comfortable by doing the same as the kids, but against Jace. Tessa had hold of the book, I wasn't for sure when it was decided that she'll read next but I didn't care. I settle into Jace's side more and faced Tessa. Listening to her voice.

**Chapter 4**

**RAVENER**

**The night had gotten even hotter, and running home felt like swimming as fast as she could through boiling soup. At the corner of her block Clary got trapped at a DON'T WALK sign. She jittered up and down impatiently on the balls of her feet while traffic whizzed by in a blur of headlights. She tried to call home again, but Jace hadn't been lying; his phone wasn't a phone. At least, it didn't look like any phone Clary had ever seen before. The Sensor's buttons didn't have numbers on them, just more of those bizarre symbols, and there was no screen.**

"You would've known that if-"

"Shut up, Jace." I mumbled, facing Tessa again.

**Jogging up the street toward her house, she saw that the second-floor windows were lit, the usual sign that her mother was home. Okay, she told herself. Everything's fine. But her stomach tightened the moment she stepped into the entryway. The overhead light had burned out, and the foyer was in darkness. The shadows seemed full of secret movement. Shivering, she started upstairs.**

"**And just where do you think you're going?" said a voice.**

**Clary whirled. "What—"**

**She broke off. Her eyes were adjusting to the dimness, and she could see the shape of a large armchair, drawn up in front of Madame Dorothea's closed door. The old woman was wedged into it like an overstuffed cushion. In the dimness Clary could see only the round shape of her powdered face, the white lace fan in her hand, the dark, yawning gap of her mouth when she spoke. "Your mother," Dorothea said, "has been making a god-awful racket up there. What's she doing? Moving furniture?"**

"More like being attacked." Mom grumbled, shaking her head

"**I don't think—"**

"**And the stairwell light's burned out, did you notice?" Dorothea rapped her fan against the arm of the chair. "Can't your mother get her boyfriend in to change it?"**

"**Luke isn't—"**

"**The skylight needs washing too. It's filthy. No wonder it's nearly pitch-black in here."**

**Luke is NOT the landlord, Clary wanted to say, but didn't. This was typical of her elderly neighbor. Once she got Luke to come around and change the lightbulb, she'd ask him to do a hundred other things—pick up her groceries, grout her shower. Once she'd made him chop up an old sofa with an ax so she could get it out of the apartment without taking the door off the hinges.**

I could feel Jace's silent chuckle, his body was shaking so much.

**Clary sighed. "I'll ask."**

"**You'd better." Dorothea snapped her fan shut with a flick of her wrist.**

**Clary's sense that something was wrong only increased when she reached the apartment door. It was unlocked, hanging slightly open, spilling a wedge-shaped shaft of light onto the landing. With a feeling of increasing panic she pushed the door open.**

**Inside the apartment the lights were on, all the lamps, everything turned up to full brightness. The glow stabbed into her eyes.**

**Her mother's keys and pink handbag were on the small wrought-iron shelf by the door, where she always left them. "Mom?" Clary called out. "Mom, I'm home."**

"You're sounding like those dumb girls in movies where they let the murderer know they're in the house and get themselves killed." Simon interrupted.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

**There was no reply. She went into the living room. Both windows were open, yards of gauzy white curtains blowing in the breeze like restless ghosts. Only when the wind dropped and the curtains settled did Clary see that the cushions had been ripped from the sofa and scattered around the room. Some were torn lengthwise, cotton innards spilling onto the floor. The bookshelves had been tipped over, their contents scattered. The piano bench lay on its side, gaping open like a wound, Jocelyn's beloved music books spewing out.**

**Most terrifying were the paintings. Every single one had been cut from its frame and ripped into strips, which were scattered across the floor. It must have been done with a knife—canvas was almost impossible to tear with your bare hands. The empty frames looked like bones picked clean. Clary felt a scream rising up in her chest. "Mom!" she shrieked. "Where are you? Mommy!"**

**She hadn't called Jocelyn "Mommy" since she was eight.**

I felt Jace squeeze my shoulder, slightly. Comforting.

**Heart pumping, she raced into the kitchen. It was empty, the cabinet doors open, a smashed bottle of Tabasco sauce spilling peppery red liquid onto the linoleum. Her knees felt like bags of water. She knew she should race out of the apartment, get to a phone, call the police. But all those things seemed distant—she needed to find her mother first, needed to see that she was all right. What if robbers had come, what if her mother had put up a fight—?**

**What kind of robbers didn't take a wallet with them, or the TV, the DVD player, or the expensive laptops?**

"The kind that just kidnaps people." Magnus comments, everyone turns and gives him a looked that he raises his hands in 'I surrender' motion.

**She was at the door to her mother's bedroom now. For a moment it looked as if this room, at least, had been left untouched. Jocelyn's handmade flowered quilt was folded carefully on the duvet. Clary's own face smiled back at her from the top of the bedside table, five years old, gap-toothed smile framed by strawberry hair. A sob rose in Clary's chest. Mom, she cried inside, what happened to you?**

**Silence answered her. No, not silence—a noise sounded through the apartment, raising the short hairs along the nape of her neck. Like something being knocked over—a heavy object striking the floor with a dull thud. The thud was followed by a dragging, slithering noise—and it was coming toward the bedroom. **

"Uh oh." Gabe said, sensing trouble from the words that were coming from Tessa's mouth.

**Stomach contracting in terror, Clary scrambled to her feet and turned around slowly.**

**For a moment she thought the doorway was empty, and she felt a wave of relief. Then she looked down.**

**It was crouched against the floor, a long, scaled creature with a cluster of flat black eyes set dead center in the front of its domed skull. Something like a cross between an alligator and a centipede, it had a thick, flat snout and a barbed tail that whipped menacingly from side to side. **

"The Ravener?" Will said, glancing at the book.

**Multiple legs bunched underneath it as it readied itself to spring.**

**A shriek tore itself out of Clary's throat. She staggered backward, tripped, and fell, just as the creature lunged at her. She rolled to the side and it missed her by inches, sliding along the wood floor, its claws gouging deep grooves. A low growl bubbled from its throat.**

**She scrambled to her feet and ran toward the hallway, but the thing was too fast for her. It sprang again, landing just above the door, where it hung like a gigantic malignant spider, staring down at her with its cluster of eyes. Its jaws opened slowly, showing a row of fanged teeth spilling greenish drool. A long black tongue flickered out between its jaws as it gurgled and hissed. To her horror Clary realized that the noises it was making were words.**

"**Girl," it hissed. "Flesh. Blood. To eat, oh, to eat."**

**It began to slither slowly down the wall. Some part of Clary had passed beyond terror into a sort of icy stillness. The thing was on its feet now, crawling toward her. Backing away, she seized a heavy framed photo off the bureau beside her—herself and her mother and Luke at Coney Island, about to go on the bumper cars—and flung it at the monster.**

"That's not going to help, Clary." Izzy said shaking her head.

"Shut up, Izzy. I didn't know. I was in a middle of a freak out."

**The photograph hit its midsection and bounced off, striking the floor with the sound of shattering glass. The creature didn't seem to notice. It came on toward her, broken glass splintering under its feet. "Bones, to crunch, to suck out the marrow, to drink the veins …"**

"Okay, that's just gross." Simon said sticking out his tongue for effect.

**Clary's back hit the wall. She could back up no farther. She felt a movement against her hip and nearly jumped out of her skin. Her pocket. Plunging her hand inside, she drew out the plastic thing she'd taken from Jace. The Sensor was shuddering, like a cell phone set to vibrate. The hard material was almost painfully hot against her palm. She closed her hand around the Sensor just as the creature sprang.**

"Its telling you there is a demon." Jace mumbled into my shoulder. He had placed it there when he heard about the movement coming towards me, before I saw it. Though, Jace obliviously knew what would happen apparently that didn't make him feel any better.

**The creature hurtled into her, knocking her to the ground, and her head and shoulders slammed against the floor. She twisted to the side, but it was too heavy. It was on top of her, an oppressive, slimy weight that made her want to gag. "To eat, to eat," it moaned. "But it is not allowed, to swallow, to savor."**

**The hot breath in her face stank of blood. She couldn't breathe. Her ribs felt like they might shatter. Her arm was pinned between her body and the monster's, the Sensor digging into her palm. She twisted, trying to work her hand free. "Valentine will never know. He said nothing about a girl. Valentine will not be angry." **

"Considering you're about to eat his daughter, I think he will." Izzy told the Ravener through the book. We glanced at her weirdly. "I know, I know. It's in the past."

**Its lipless mouth twitched as its jaws opened, slowly, a wave of stinking breath hot in her face.**

**Clary's hand came free. With a scream she hit out at the thing, wanting to smash it, to blind it. She had almost forgotten the Sensor. As the creature lunged for her face, jaws wide, she jammed the Sensor between its teeth and felt hot, acidic drool coat her wrist and spill in burning drops onto the bare skin of her face and throat. As if from a distance, she could hear herself screaming.**

**Looking almost surprised, the creature jerked back, the Sensor lodged between two teeth. It growled, a thick angry buzz, and threw its head back. Clary saw it swallow, saw the movement of its throat. I'm next, she thought, panicked. I'm—**

**Suddenly the thing began to twitch. Spasming uncontrollably, it rolled off Clary and onto its back, multiple legs churning the air. Black fluid poured from its mouth.**

**Gasping for air, Clary rolled over and started to scramble away from the thing. She'd nearly reached the door when she heard something whistle through the air next to her head. She tried to duck, but it was too late. An object slammed heavily into the back of her skull, and she collapsed forward into blackness.**

"Clary." Mom and dad said almost warningly. I gave an innocent smile and a shrug.

**Light stabbed through her eyelids, blue, white, and red. There was a high wailing noise, rising in pitch like the scream of a terrified child. Clary gagged and opened her eyes.**

**She was lying on cold damp grass. The night sky rippled overhead, the pewter gleam of stars washed out by city lights. Jace knelt beside her, the silver cuffs on his wrists throwing off sparks of light as he tore the piece of cloth he was holding into strips. "Don't move."**

**The wailing threatened to split her ears in half. Clary turned her head to the side, disobediently, and was rewarded with a razoring stab of pain that shot down her back. **

"I told you not to move." Jace repeated the words from long ago.

"You thought Clary would listen to you? She hardly listens to Luke and I." Mom told Jace shaking her head.

**She was lying on a patch of grass behind Jocelyn's carefully tended rosebushes. The foliage partially hid her view of the street, where a police car, its blue-and-white light bar flashing, was pulled up to the curb, siren wailing. Already a small knot of neighbors had gathered, staring as the car door opened and two blue-uniformed officers emerged.**

**The police. She tried to sit up, and gagged again, fingers spasming into the damp earth.**

"**I told you not to move," Jace hissed. "That Ravener demon got you in the back of the neck. It was half-dead so it wasn't much of a sting, but we have to get you to the Institute. Hold still."**

"**That thing—the monster—it talked." Clary was shuddering uncontrollably.**

"**You've heard a demon talk before." Jace's hands were gentle as he slipped the strip of knotted cloth under her neck, and tied it. It was smeared with something waxy, like the gardener's salve her mother used to keep her paint- and turpentine-abused hands soft.**

"**The demon in Pandemonium—it looked like a person."**

"**It was an Eidolon demon. A shape-changer. Raveners look like they look. Not very attractive, but they're too stupid to care."**

"**It said it was going to eat me."**

"**But it didn't. You killed it." Jace finished the knot and sat back.**

"I told you." Jace seemed to point that comment towards Alec. Alec sighed but nod his head.

**To Clary's relief the pain in the back of her neck had faded. She hauled herself into a sitting position. "The police are here." Her voice came out like a frog's croak. "We should—"**

"**There's nothing they can do. Somebody probably heard you screaming and reported it. Ten to one those aren't real police officers. Demons have a way of hiding their tracks."**

"**My mom," Clary said, forcing the words through her swollen throat.**

"**There's Ravener poison coursing through your veins right now. You'll be dead in an hour if you don't come with me." He got to his feet and held out a hand to her. She took it and he pulled her upright. "Come on."**

**The world tilted. Jace slid a hand across her back, holding her steady. He smelled of dirt, blood, and metal. "Can you walk?"**

"No." I said shaking my head.

"**I think so." She glanced through the densely blooming bushes. She could see the police coming up the path. One of them, a slim blond woman, held a flashlight in one hand. As she raised it, Clary saw the hand was fleshless, a skeleton hand sharpened to bone points at the fingertips. "Her hand—"**

"**I told you they might be demons." Jace glanced at the back of the house. "We have to get out of here. Can we go through the alley?"**

**Clary shook her head. "It's bricked up. There's no way—" Her words dissolved into a fit of coughing. She raised her hand to cover her mouth. It came away red. She whimpered.**

"Jace shut up, and get her to the Institute." Izzy growled.

"I'm working on it." He grumbled, like he hadn't already done that.

**He grabbed her wrist, turned it over so the white, vulnerable flesh of her inner arm lay bare under the moonlight. Traceries of blue vein mapped the inside of her skin, carrying poisoned blood to her heart, her brain. Clary felt her knees buckle. There was something in Jace's hand, something sharp and silver. She tried to pull her hand back, but his grip was too hard: She felt a stinging kiss against her skin. When he let go, she saw an inked black symbol like the ones that covered his skin, just below the fold of her wrist. This one looked like a set of overlapping circles.**

"You put a Rune on her!" My mother yelled, being held back by Luke. "You didn't know if she was a Shadowhunter! You could've killed her."

At least Jace had the decency to look like he was sorry. He rubbed the back of his neck. "In my defense, I would look suspicious if I was carrying an unconscious girl around the city."

"**What's that supposed to do?"**

"**It'll hide you," he said. "Temporarily." He slid the thing Clary had thought was a knife back into his belt. It was a long, luminous cylinder, as thick around as an index finger and tapering to a point. "My stele," he said.**

**Clary didn't ask what that was. She was busy trying not to fall over. The ground was heaving up and down under her feet. "Jace," she said, and she crumpled into him. He caught her as if he were used to catching fainting girls, as if he did it every day. Maybe he did. **

Jace chuckled and nods. "You'll be surprised as many girls like to faint to see if I'll catch them." I rolled my eyes at him, turning away from him.

**He swung her up into his arms, saying something in her ear that sounded like Covenant. Clary tipped her head back to look at him but saw only the stars cartwheeling across the dark sky overhead. Then the bottom dropped out of everything, and even Jace's arms around her were not enough to keep her from falling.**

"It's to the end." Tessa announced closing the book. Will took the book from her, wanting to continue it right off the bat. Jace decided, first, though he had to be comfortable too. Twisting his body, so that I was between his legs and his back was against the arm rest. Wrapping his arms around me the best he could and leaned his head on top of mine.

We waited for Will to start.


End file.
